Indian tricolour hoisted in Games village

The Indian contingent to the Asian Games assembled for a special occasion - the hoisting of the national flag at the Games village.

Chef-de-Mission of the 350-strong Indian contingent, Jagdish Tytler hoisted the tricolour at a quiet function in the Games village in the presence of the partipants and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) officials who have accompanied the contingent.

Although, quite a few Indian teams had reached Busan a few days back and the flag hoisting ceremony was scheduled for Saturday, just a day ahead of the opening ceremony, to allow some more squads to reach the venue for the occasion.

The shooters were the first to arrive in Busan, coming a week ahead of the scheduled opening ceremony, to get acclimatised to the conditions while the footballers were the next to reach on september 23.

The men's and women's hockey team, judokas, weightlifters arrived on September 25 alongwith the deputy chef-de-mission Col C P Singh Deo.

The billiards, snooker, squash, table tennis, boxing, wrestling, golf teams came in the next batch and reached this picturesque port city on Friday.

The tennis, body building, kabaddi and volleyball teams are expected to arrive on September 30.

The athletes will be the last to arrive mainly because the track and field events get underway from October 7. Although they will reach here on october 4, K M Beenamol who is the flag bearer for the opening ceremony, arrived on Saturday.