He said that all the problems of the early days of the Games had been resolved, and he praised the “solidarity and harmony” of the Asian Olympic family.

Speaking at the final meeting of the Chefs de Mission at the Hanoi Daewoo Hotel, Wei said, “I remember the first Chefs de Mission meeting lasted two hours. There were a lot of questions to be discussed.

“I said at that time that all these problems could not find a solution without the collaboration of the OCA, VAIGOC and the NOCs. Thanks to our common efforts, all those problems were solved very quickly, step by step.”

Wei also thanked the organising committee, VAIGOC, the staff of the competition venues, the Main Media Centre and International Broadcasting Centre, the hotels, drivers and volunteers.

“My conclusion is that the OCA is a big family. Inside this family we do not have any conflicts regarding politics, the economy, religion or cultural matters. It is natural that we have differences, but we do not have conflicts because conflicts are sometimes finished by fighting.

“Instead, we have solidarity and harmony and this is the great success of the OCA. We prove this in every Games organised by the OCA and we will prove it again in the future.”

Billiards get push in VN

President of the Asian Billiards Association Sindu Pulsirivong came to Viet Nam for the AIG and has promised to help Viet Nam develop the sport, which is spreading wildly across the nation.

Despite the economic difficulties being experienced by many, there are still 26 countries with over 200 players registered for the billiards competition.

“This number shows that the sport is now very popular in Asia. I feel proud to say that Asia has championship players in carom, pool and snooker. This result makes it clear that Asian players are capable of being the best in the world,” he said.

“We co-operated with Viet Nam to achieve this success. This is the result of a hardworking team and sometimes we and some members of the organising committee work until 2 or 3am.

“When I came back from Viet Nam after my previous visit for the SEA Games in 2003, I already thought that Viet Nam would develop very fast in the sports field. One of the reasons was the number of spectators at all the events. Many people came to watch the matches. Sports have to have fans. You can see that many spectators came to the stadium this afternoon and that is wonderful. Viet Nam won a gold medal, but Thailand is still waiting for its billiards goal.

“Anything that Viet Nam needs, we will try our best to help out. In Thailand, we have a very good training centre and we are very pleased to invite Vietnamese players to come and train there. In the future, we will open an advanced training course for coaches and referees and we will invite Viet Nam to participate. We will do everything we can to help you,” he said.

Vietnamese ‘obstacles’

Swimmer Polyakov Vladislav from Kazakhstan was the biggest rival for Nguyen Huu Viet of Viet Nam at the AIG. He stated, “I love the Viet Nam team. The swimmers are so young and strong and quick to learn. I noticed this last time I went to Bangkok, Thailand to compete. They were such huge obstacles for me in winning the gold.”

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News