Asian not at the heart of it all, it seems, for some countries at the Asian Games

Discontent is brewing against countries who have enlisted 'more powerful' African athletes in pursuit of medals.

Nigerian-born Femi Ogunode, centre, represented Qatar at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. He won the 100-metre race in an Asian record time of 9.93 seconds. Manan Vatsyayana / AFP

First it was the European competitors from the former Soviet republics who upset the Asian Games. Now it is the African-born athletes competing for Arabian Gulf states, as the debate over the event's identity looks set to heat up.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said it is working towards admitting Pacific nations in future Games, paving the way for countries such as Australia and New Zealand to take part.

This offers the possibility of compelling clashes in the pool between swimming superpower Australia and current Asian powerhouses China and Japan.

But it will also raise fresh questions about the “Asian” character of the Olympic-style event.

Athletes, born in Africa and running for Qatar and Bahrain, have dominated the track events for three successive Games. In the 1990s, athletes made similar comments about the blond athletes from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian republics who looked east after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

They are now big medal winners, but are ­accepted.

Qatar and Bahrain between them won 15 athletics gold medals in Incheon, putting them second and third behind China. But 13 of those 15 were claimed by competitors who had switched nationality from African states.

The head of India’s Asian Games delegation, Adille Sumariwala, led the criticism after his squad dropped two places in the medal table from Guangzhou 2010.

“I don’t think this is fair,” former national 100-metre sprint champion Sumariwala said.

“These are the Asian Games, not African Games.”

Nigeria-born Femi Ogunode set an Asian record in the 100m with a time of 9.93 seconds – no Asia-born runner has broken the 10-second barrier – and completed a double with gold in the 200m.

China’s 100m silver medallist Su Bingtian also called the Arab Gulf states’ African contingent ­“unfair”.

“They are taller and have a longer stride,” he said. “They are more powerful and athletic. Physically, we are at a disadvantage.”

Imports continued a dominance in track events that stretches back to the 2006 Doha Games when Kenya-born runners won the men’s 800m, 1500m, 5,000m, 10,000m, 3000m steeplechase and marathon.

The UAE's two middle-distance runners – Bethlem Desaleyn and Ali Saeed, who won gold in the 10,000m – were born in Ethiopia.

At the 2010 Guangzhou Games, Bahrain and Qatar’s African runners again dominated the men’s long-distance track events, taking all six medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m

In Incheon, as well as the medals they won, African-born athletes claimed six of the 11 Asiad track records to fall.

For athletes from traditional middle- and long-distance powerhouses such as Kenya, Ethiopia and Morocco, the attractions of switching to Arab Gulf teams are obvious.

Aside from the income and facilities offered, the athletes walk into the national teams of their adopted states, giving them more opportunities to compete in big events.

Bahrain’s Albert Kibichii Rop, formerly Kenyan, who took 5,000m bronze in an all-African-born podium last week, was frank.

“It’s hard to make the team in Kenya. Everyone is very strong,” he said.

“I sought a way to get on.”

Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad of Kuwait, the OCA president, said he would prefer to see native-born athletes competing and becoming “heroes for the new generation”, but the Games are bound by rules.

“In the end there’s an Olympic charter that says three years and they can represent a [different] country,” he said.

“If the law allows this, we can’t resist it. We have to respect it. We hope that the local athletes are in the majority, but in the end this is sport.”

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