NAGOYA, Japan, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Asian Games organisers faced a scheduling headache on Monday as persistent rain disrupted several competitions at the multi-sport event, with cricket, tennis and surfing among those affected.
The men’s cricket quarter-finals between Pakistan and Hong Kong and India and Afghanistan were washed out after heavy rain left the field at Korogi Athletic Park in Nagoya unplayable.
With no contingency built into the schedule, Pakistan and India advanced to the T20 semi-finals by virtue of their higher rankings.
The result was particularly frustrating for Afghanistan, who lost the gold medal to India under the same rankings rule three years ago after their Hangzhou Games final was abandoned because of rain.
“The rain started yesterday, so hard luck for us,” Afghanistan opener Mohammed Akram said.
“We would have been happy to play here with India – our players are in form. But unfortunately the rain has ruined everything.”
Typhoon Surigae lashed Japan’s southern Okinawa prefecture on Monday and was forecast to track northeast towards central Japan and the Tokyo region by midweek, raising the prospect of further disruption from strong winds and heavy rain.
Typhoon Dujuan had already forced the suspension of equestrian events in Tokyo during the first week of the Games, although most competitions were unaffected.
The Asian Games are centred on Nagoya and Aichi Prefecture, with Tokyo hosting diving and Osaka staging football matches.
Rain also disrupted the tennis schedule, with several matches cancelled on Sunday and further delays on Monday.
Filipino top seed Alex Eala’s opening match against Thailand’s Patcharin Cheapchandej was repeatedly delayed at the Higashiyama Park Tennis Centre. Eala’s match was moved from centre court as organisers attempted to clear the backlog, but had yet to begin by mid-afternoon.
Surfing was also called off early at the Long Beach venue southeast of Nagoya because of poor wave conditions. The medal finals had already been pushed back to Tuesday, the final scheduled day of competition.
India’s Kishore Kumar Anbarasu managed to complete his heat before competition was abandoned, beating China’s Ma Wensong to reach the quarter-finals in surfing’s Asian Games debut.
“It was not the easiest conditions. It was very hard to find the good waves,” Anbarasu said.
The Asian Games run until Oct. 4.
