Concerns and controversies at the 2018 Asian Games

A number of concerns and controversies surfaced before and during the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia.

Prior to the Games

Prior to the Games, several concerns have been raised over the preparation of the Games. Authorities in Indonesia confident both host cities will be ready for the Games although have had only four years to prepare rather than the usual six after stepping in to fill the gap when Vietnam, whose city of Hanoi was originally chosen to host these Games by the Olympic Council of Asia, dropped out in 2014 citing concerns over costs. On top of that, work in both host cities was delayed throughout 2015 because government funding was not immediately available.

Jakarta, consistently ranked as having one of the world's worst traffic congestion problems, is building a subway. However, it will not be ready until 2019, so organizers have proposed closing schools during the event to curb traffic from millions of commuting pupils. Authorities also proposed to set aside toll roads and bus lanes for special official and athlete use during the Games. Jakarta has also instated an odd-even licence plate system to limit congestion.

Air pollution also becomes a concern on both cities. Jakarta has long struggled to boost air quality, regularly rated as unsafe by the World Health Organization (WHO) as Jakarta's average score on the Air Quality Index (AQI) had exceeded 100 during early July 2018, once reaching the "unhealthy" range at 171 on 11 AM, Tuesday, 17 July 2018. Palembang also had been constantly under risk of haze caused by peatland fire during dry season which coincides with the Games. Authorities are looking into the possibility of cloud seeding to combat the fire hotspots by triggering rainfall in dry areas with flares of salt shot into suitable clouds. Authorities covered a polluted, foul-smelling river near the Asian Games athletes' village in Jakarta with black nylon mesh over fears it will be an eyesore at the showpiece event.

Security is another concern, with the Games taking place just a few months after a series of terror attacks, which killed dozens of people and provoked fear over Islamist militants. Some 100,000 security staff including bomb squad and sniper teams will be deployed in Jakarta, Palembang, and West Java, where the majority of events are hosted. Local police said they have been taking part in a pre-Asian Games crackdown on terror suspects and petty street criminals.

The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) also raised concerns over Malaysian athletes' security issues due to the recent provocations by Indonesian fans at venues and on social media. Although, it was initially triggered by the Instagram's post of one Malaysian when they were competing the 2018 AFF U-16 Youth Championship at East Java.

On 21 July 2018, less than one month from the Games, women football venue of Gelora Sriwijaya Stadium in Palembang had been partially damaged in a riot during local football match. At least 335 seats had been destroyed by the mob.

Officials had held Asian Games' men football tournament drawing three times due to protest from UAE and Palestine which were incidentally not included in the first drawing. Later, Iraq withdrew from tournament which forced officials to rebalance the groups by determining which of Palestine or UAE would be moved to Group C to replace Iraq.

Prior to the start of the golf tournament of the Asian Games, several national golf associations complained to the Court of Arbitration for Sport that Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Macau and Uzbekistan had possibly entered professional golfers, but the CAS ruled that none of the players were professional as the golf tournament was reserved only for the amateur players.

During the Games

Organizational issues

During the medal ceremony of men's 200 metre freestyle swimming on 19 August 2018, the flags of the three medalists crashed to the ground due to a technical malfunction. Sun Yang, the Chinese swimmer and the gold medalist of the event, immediately got off the podium, walked to some officials and demanded the medal ceremony to be conducted once again. The flags were re-attached to the broken hoist but couldn't be raised, and the Chinese anthem was played for a second time.

Athletics

On 25 August 2018, Hiroto Inoue won the Asian Games men's marathon in a controversial sprint finish, with Bahrain later lodging a complaint to race officials, accusing the Japanese runner of barging second-place finisher Elhassan Elabbassi. Meanwhile on the same day, a cat ran into track of the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium during the interval of women's 100m qualification competition.

Men's basketball officiating

Coach Yeng Guiao of the Philippine National Basketball team raised doubts on why a Hong Kong referee officiated the match up between China and the Philippines. Despite having its own organized sports body, Hong Kong is special administrative region of the of China. He questioned the number of China's free throw attempts to the Philippines', 39 foul shots to 15. The Chinese team was assessed to only 16 fouls compared to the Philippines, 25.

Men's football officiating

Luis Milla, the head coach of Indonesian national football team called the referee Shaun Evans from Australia 'unfit' after he gave two controversial penalties during a game between Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. Milla was disappointed because the referee was biased during the whole game.

Boxing officiating

In women's 57 kg, Filipino boxer Nesthy Petecio lost a controversial bout against Chinese rival Yin Junhua to the surprise of most of the crowd at the Jakarta International Expo Hall C. Japanese and Turkmen judges ruled in favor of the Filipino while Bulgarian and South Korean judges ruled in favor of the Chinese. The French judge scored a 28-28, but later handed the fight to the Chinese to break the deadlock. Petecio shed tears of anger and stared at the judges. Philippine chef de mission Richard Gomez said it’s a case of “bad call, bad decision and bad scoring” while Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) executive director Ed Picson blasted the result of the bout and appeals to officials “that the judges responsible for this travesty not be assigned to officiate in the coming Philippines fights as judges or referees.”

Pencak Silat

On 27 August 2018, Malaysian pencak silat athlete, Mohd Al-Jufferi Jamari accused the judges of bias and damaged some of the facilities in the venue. Another case of Malaysian pencak silat team, a Malaysian athlete deliberately kicked his Singaporean opponent after being knocked out.