Korean athletes welcomed into athletes’ Asiad village

South Korean athletes competing at the 19th Asian Games in the Chinese city of Hangzhou were welcomed into their official residence Thursday.

Led by top delegate Choi Yoon, about 30 South Korean athletes and officials attended the team welcome ceremony in Hangzhou, joined by delegations from Jordan, Syria and Yemen.

Choi was also part of the main batch of the delegation that arrived in Hangzhou on Wednesday afternoon, with more athletes scheduled to arrive here later Thursday, two days before the opening ceremony.

Sun Xudong, vice mayor of Hangzhou and executive mayor of the athletes’ village, welcomed the athletes on the rainy day, with the ceremony featuring a traditional dance performance, the raising of the participating countries’ national flags and the playing of their anthems.

“Facilities at the village are great, and the competition has been running quite smoothly so far,” Choi said.

Jang Jae-keun, vice head of the delegation, said: “Now that we’ve had our ceremony here, it feels like the competition is right around the corner. I know we have a tough road ahead, but I expect great results for the whole delegation.”

South Korea will have its Asian Games record delegation of 1,140 athletes and officials, competing in 39 out of 40 sports.

They have set out to grab 40 to 50 gold medals and finish in third place in the medal race behind China and Japan.

South Korea had been the runner-up to China at five consecutive editions of Asian Games from 1998 to 2014, but the streak was snapped in 2018 in Indonesia, where South Korea ended in third place with 49 gold medals, 26 behind second-place Japan.

Those 49 gold medals were also South Korea’s fewest at an Asiad since 1982.