Delhi loses bid to host 2014 Asiad

IN VAIN: New Delhi launched an aggressive bid but failed to get the rights to host the prestigious event.

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New Delhi: India has lost out in the race to host the Asian Games in 2014. South Korea's Incheon outbid the Indian bid contingent in a two-day battle in Kuwait on Tuesday.

This, of course, means that South Korea will be hosting the Asiad again in the span of 12 years.

The winner was eventually decided by the 45-member General Assembly, the majority of whom opted for the Korean city.

OCA chief Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah did not announce how many votes Incheon received in the ballot among the 45-member countries, saying that the AOC does not give out the figures.

If India had won the bid they would have hosted the Games for a third time, right after the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

India has hosted the Games twice, the inaugural games in 1951 and the 1982 Games.

India's bid contingent was led by Sports minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Indian Olympic Association President Suresh Kalmadi and leading sportsmen Anju Bobby George and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

Korea will be hosting the Games for a third time, with Seoul and Busan having conducted it in 1986 and 2002 respectively.

The Indian contingent was totally dejected, mulling what went wrong in their bid preparations.

The chairman of the bid committee from South Korea told CNN-IBN that in the end, it all came down to how both the cities squared up against each other, how the experience of the respective countries have been in hosting big games, and considering the fact that South Korea has hosted a lot of big games in the recent past.

India were only banking on the 1982 Asiad and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The last Asiad that India hosted was way in the past, which perhaps proved to be the deciding factor.

South Korea in its bid had committed $20 million as training expenses. The IOA in its bid committed $2,00,000 per country for training expenses. Both countries put forward many lucrative offers to entice them, but in the end, South Korea won.

"We looked a divided lot because of the Sports Minister's comments which appeared in newspapers also," Kalmadi said after losing the bid to Incheon.

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, President of Olympic Council of Asian, which controls sports in the Asian region, said: "It was very close. They both had weak points and strong points. From the marketing viewpoint, Korea had the edge."

(With inputs from PTI)