Typhoon Dujuan drifts toward eastern coast, threat still looms over Asian Games

Nagoya: Asian Games organisers were bracing for possible weather disruption in the opening days of the multi-sport gathering, with Typhoon Dujuan likely to hit the Aichi-Nagoya coast on Monday. The 20th Asiad officially starts with the opening ceremony on Saturday.

Tropical storm Dujuan was located off Japan's Pacific coast, heading northwest towards central Japan, where Nagoya is located. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 90 kph and gusts of up to 126 kph. The latest reports suggest that the typhoon is drifting away from Nagoya, towards the eastern coast of Japan, towards the capital city of Tokyo.

Torrential rains hit Nagoya and the surrounding region last week, leaving schools closed, train services suspended and forcing several hundred athletes to evacuate their accommodation.

With the existing issues of athlete accommodation, the cyclone could have dealt another blow, as the Italian Cruise ship, Costa Serena, docked in Nagoya for housing 4000 athletes could be impractical under torrential weather conditions. The women’s cricket quarter-final fixture between Bangladesh and China was abandoned earlier in the Games due to a waterlogged pitch.

Kosei Inoue, Japan's chef de mission for the Games and a senior executive board member of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC), addressed the weather threat at a news conference on Thursday. "Due to the heavy rain and severe weather, some competitions have already experienced delays or postponements, and there is also a possibility that a typhoon could approach on September 21," he told reporters.

"Under these circumstances, we are holding thorough meetings within the JOC to ensure that we are fully prepared and capable of responding appropriately to these situations."
(With Reuters inputs)