Olympic Torch cheered through Beijing by exciting crowds

BEIJING: The Olympic flame was cheered through Beijing by flag-waving crowds Wednesday as excitement built two days before the Games, but a dramatic Tibet protest and pollution worries clouded the final run-up.

Tens of thousands of Beijing residents gathered in historic Tiananmen Square as the torch completed an epic journey to bring the Olympic flame to the Chinese capital ahead of Friday's opening ceremony.

Protests dogged the torch's odyssey through Europe, the United States and parts of Asia, while May's huge earthquake in Sichuan province overshadowed the Chinese leg, but there was genuine excitement on the streets of Beijing.

"I feel very excited and very proud because the Olympic Games is a 100-year dream of China's," said 60-year-old Jiang Rong, as astronaut Yang Liwei and basketball star Yao Ming helped open the final leg.

China has painted the Games as a celebration of three decades of economic reforms aimed at showcasing a rapidly modernising country, but it has been unable to shake off controversies and public relations problems. 

While some athletes have complained about pollution and even worn masks to protect their lungs, the International Olympic Committee has said it is happy with the air quality levels.

Despite the controversies, the organisers have reassured the 10,000 athletes and 500,000 other expected foreign visitors the event would not only be safe, but that everything was in place to ensure a successful event.

The first sporting competition of the Games was due to take place Wednesday -- two women's football matches -- and the final touches were being put to what is expected to be a spectacular opening ceremony at the "Bird's Nest" stadium on Friday choreographed by acclaimed film director Zhang Yimou.

Iraq leads charge of the minnows

BEIJING: Many countries at the Beijing Olympics know they have no hope of upstaging powerhouse nations like China and the United States, but the world's sporting minnows plan to grab some of the limelight.

While some nations might whinge about winning dozens of medals, others will be glad of just one -- and a bronze at that.

More than 80 countries competing in Beijing have never before been on the Olympic podium. For a myriad of reasons -- political, geographical, financial -- their sporting prowess has never matured.

After a crisis meeting with the International Olympic Committee last week, war-torn Iraq was finally allowed to send four athletes but their chances of making the podium are slim.

The IOC had suspended the country's participation in May citing political interference in its national Olympic committee, which the Iraqi government had dissolved over allegations of corruption.

But Iraq pledged to hold free elections for the committee under international observation, paving the way for its reinstatement.

"It does not matter what we will achieve at the Games, the important thing is we are here," said relieved Iraqi sprinter Dana Hussein, who will compete in 100m and 200m as her country's sole female competitor.

"I have realized my dream of competing at the Olympics, and I am extremely happy to come to Beijing." 

The others who arrived Monday included rower Haidar Nozad, who is in the men's double sculls with Hamzah Hussein Jebur, and Haidir Nasir in the men's discus, but with few facilities their training has been scant.

Timor-Leste, one of the world's poorest countries, became the first new nation of the 21st century when it declared independence from Indonesia in 2002, just in time to send a team to Athens. 

It's key sports are boxing, weightlifting, taekwondo and athletics.

But severe shortages of money, facilities and equipment means the nation faces more obstacles than most in achieving its Olympic dream, and only marathon runners Antonio Ramos and Mariana Diaz Ximenez are in Beijing.

"Sport is not a priority for the government of East Timor and our infrastructure is non-existent," said Joao Carrascalao, the head of Timor's Olympic committee.

"We don't have any hope of winning the marathon, but to finish the marathon 
is already an achievement." 

Another country facing difficulties is the tiny South Pacific island nation of Kiribati, which has managed to send three athletes -- 200m sprinters Kaitinano Mwemweata and Rabangaki Nawai, and weightlifter David Katoatau.

Tiny Brunei might be oil rich but when it comes to producing athletes, it is lacking big time. The small monarchy on the island of Borneo will be competing in its fifth Summer Olympics but will inevitabley go home empty-handed.

Bhutan is bigger than Brunei but remains one of the most secluded countries in the world, tucked between Asian heavyweights China and India.

Their national sport is archery -- competitions are held regulary in villages throughout the monarchy -- and they have an outside chance after six Games with no joy.

Cambodia may not be a minnow in population terms, but it remains that way in the sporting arena.

Boxing is its forte and it has sent a handful of athletes, including swimmer Hem Thon Ponloeu and his 16-year-old niece Hem Thon Vitiny.

Like many Asian nations, Africa has its fair share on non-achievers. 

While countries like Ethiopia and Kenya regularly churn out world-beating distance runners, the vast majority of African nations have never produced the goods.

This includes Angola, Chad, Gambia, Liberia, and Malwai.

Other countries never to have made the podium include Bolivia, Cook Islands, Jordan, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, and Tajikistan.

A handful of nations have won just one bronze medal since the Games started in 1896, including Iraq, Kuwait, Niger, Kyrgyzstan, and Guyana, while Vietnam,Paraguay, Tonga, and Senegal have a single silver medal to their name.

Chinese get thumbs up from WADA supremo

BEIJING: The Chinese government received a glowing report on Wednesday from World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chief John Fahey for the progress made on tackling drugs in sport.

The 63-year-old former Australian finance minister -- who succeeded Dick Pound last year -- said WADA had been working closely with the Chinese authorities for several years in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics, which start Friday.

Fahey, whose main international claim to fame is to have foiled an assassination attempt on Britain's Prince Charles in 1994, said real progress had been made in a country whose reputation has often been sullied by doping scandals surrounding their own athletes and swimmers.

"WADA has been working closely with the Chinese government and their Anti-Doping Agency for several years now," said Fahey, who was also New South Wales state premier before going into federal politics.

"I am pleased to say that rapid progress has been made with an independent doping unit and a state of the art laboratory."

While there will be 4,500 doping tests during the Games, WADA's direct involvement ended once the Olympic village opened and they will be here solely as independent observers of the testing.

Fahey added that while doping authorities have done all in their power to ensure that no athletes slipped through the net prior to arriving in Beijing, they could not be blamed for the fact some would arrive doped.

"The real onus is on the countries and the national federations to see that their athletes arrive clean," he said.

Several doping scandals have already hit the Olympics, including India withdrawing weightlifter Monika Devi on Wednesday after she tested positive for a banned steroid in a pre-Games test.

Games to start with a big bang

BEIJING: The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics will get the Summer Games — billed as the greatest show on earth — off to an explosive start on Friday.

You should not expect anything less from the nation that invented gunpowder, and fireworks are certain to play a major role in the 3- hour spectacular that China hopes will help dispel the political controversies dogging their Olympics.

Beijing’s new national stadium, the steel-latticed ‘Bird’s Nest’, hosts the lavish opening ceremony which will draw on some 10,000 performers and could net a global television audience of more than four billion people.

It will also be the most expensive in Olympic history, with media speculating that as much as $100 million has been earmarked for the opening and closing ceremonies — more than twice that spent on the acclaimed 2004 Athens pageant.

The world got a tantalizing glimpse of what is in store when a South Korean television crew slipped past the security cordon last week to film a secret dress rehearsal.

Their footage, flashed over the internet, showed aerial artists floating over the track, kung-fu formations and humpbacked whales cavorting around the rim of the Bird’s Nest.

“The ceremony will be astonishing and magnificent,” said Frenchman Yves Pepin, a multimedia events expert who has helped Zhang devise the show and has signed a confidentiality clause preventing him from revealing any content.

“This will be a way for China to show the world what it is capable of,” he told Reuters. “I think it is going to be the biggest show of its type ever seen.”

The Games signal China’s ascent from poverty and isolation to a place at the summit of the global community. It now has the world’s fourth-largest economy.

But like much of the Olympics, the ceremony has been enmeshed in politics, with Hollywood director Steven Spielberg quitting as an adviser earlier this year to protest at China’s close ties with Sudan.

Then world leaders got into the act, debating whether to skip the ceremony to protest over China’s human rights record.

In the event, US President George Bush announced he would attend, as well as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel declined to come.

Zhang and his army of workers hope that for 210 minutes the world will just focus on the fun.

“The ceremony won’t make people forget all the controversies, but they might put them aside for just 3- hours,” said Pepin, who masterminded the opening of the 1998 soccer World Cup in France.

Zhang, who directed films such as Raise the Red Lantern and House of Flying Daggers, has spent three years working on the production, looking to condense 5,000 years of Chinese history into a 50-minute segment which will be slotted into the show.

“Some previous ceremonies have been truly extraordinary and I have no doubt that the Chinese will match that, at least, if not take it on to another plane,” said British events producer Harvey Goldsmith, who organized the 2005 Live 8 concerts.

“But frankly these things go on for too long and it is getting increasingly hard to wow people,” he said.

All the hard work and money could yet be wasted if one of Beijing’s notorious summer storms hits when the curtain goes up — especially since original plans to put a roof on the stadium were abandoned in an effort to curb costs.

Officials said on Saturday they would soon have a weather forecast for the opening ceremony, but cautioned they could never be 100 percent accurate.

“We’re working as hard as we can,” Wang Yingchun, spokeswoman for the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, told reporters.

Leaving nothing to chance, the gala will kick off at 8 minutes past 8 pm on the 8th month of 2008. Eight is a lucky number in China and in a year marked by the deadly earthquake in Sichuan province a bit of luck would be welcome.