Incheon: Clarifications - and more clarifications - seem to be the order of the day since the 2014 Incheon Asian Games got under way here last week.
First, it was the badminton competition at the Gyeyang Gymnasium having a blackout. The very next day a clarification was issued.
Then close to midnight on Saturday, the Asian Games cauldron briefly lost its flame due to a “technical glitch”. The flame went off for about 10 minutes due to an alleged malfunction in the cauldron that held the fire that is created with a mixture of water and liquified gas for a fountain-shaped flame.
Next came the news of the presence of the colon bacillus bacteria in food packs meant for staff at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field.
The latest is, of course, the discovery of potentially dangerous salmonella bacteria in lunch boxes prepared for athletes and staff at the Asian Games. With so much of off-field action, it was not too surprising to see action initiated in each of these cases.
Not only was South Korea’s Food and Drug Safety Ministry quick to act by disposing off the food and changing the supplier, the organisers were even quick in issuing clarifications on all instances.
The latest clarification from the 2014 Incheon Asian Games Organizing Committee (IAGOC) has stated: “First of all, the IAGOC confirms that it is not true that the lunchboxes, which were provided to volunteers and supporting staff, had passed their expiry date.
“The lunchbox was determined to be safe after examination by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Medical and Anti-Doping Bureau of the IAGOC before distribution. The IAGOC discovered through an investigation that there was a flaw in the process of distribution and that the date of production was labelled incorrectly.”
Action was quick and instant measures were put in place. “The IAGOC deeply apologizes for such an unexpected situation and has been providing cash instead of lunchboxes [to the staff],” the clarification continued.
The IAGOC also settled a dispute with one of the organising federations through the same press release. The Archery Association had charged the IAGOC of not helping them sufficiently in organizing the competition.
“The IAGOC has initially built new facility for finals, which costs 180 million won [Dh635,611], upon the request of the Archery Association. Since then, there has been no additional request related to the facility from the archery association,” the clarification stated.
“The IAGOC confronted the Archery Association right after the news was reported and the Archery Association has also confirmed the IAGOC’s statement,” it added.
