Bangkok, Thailand, March 4, 2024: Thai organisers of the 6th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games assured top officials from across 45 Asian National Olympic Committees on Monday, March 4, that Bangkok’s notorious traffic delays would not impact the showpiece in November.
“We won’t have any problems because we have picked hotel accommodations for the athletes which are not more than 30 minutes from their competition venues. We guarantee everything will run smoothly,” promised Akarin Hiranprueck, Sports Director, AIMAG 6.
Bangkok’s reputation for its notorious traffic gridlocks seemed to have filtered across the psyche of the visiting officials taking part in the Chefs de Mission Meeting for AIMAG 6 in the capital and Chonburi Province, Thailand from November 21-30.
The common topic of conversation during the site visits of sporting venues in Bangkok on Monday, March 4 was whether athletes would face delays in travelling from their hotels to the competition venues.
“We are worried about the traffic, especially in Bangkok. The sporting sites are spread across the city and we fear there might be issues getting to and fro to the competition sites,” raised Ngyuen Ngoc Trang, a Vietnamese official, at the first stop, the skate park in the shadow of the giant Rajamangala National Stadium.
Among others who held similar viewpoints were Seyed Manaf Hashemi, Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Sujan Lal Shrestha, executive secretary of the Nepal Olympic Committee.
Competition Manager Wasuwat Torkaew was quick to reassure all, pointing out that all athletes who will be taking part in the skate event would be housed in hotels nearby.
Echoing the AIMAG 6 Sports Director, Torkaew said: “Hotel accommodation is not more than 30 minutes away. And this is the same for all sports, whether they are in Bangkok or in Chonburi.”
Visiting sports officials were given the choice of visiting sites in the capital or Chonburi Province, two hours from Bangkok by road, on Monday. There was a 50-50 split and two busloads each took off from the Centara Grand Hotel in Bangkok.
The Bangkok site visits were mainly focused around Rajamangala National Stadium which later this month hosts American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars. But it was down to earth for the Chefs de Mission as they stopped at a few AIMAG 6 sporting venues in the capital, including skate, basketball 5 and sport climbing.
Thai organisers also showed the Bangkok delegation the venue for the opening and closing ceremony, the Indoor Stadium Huamark, which will also host futsal matches.
Bangkok will host 20 sports while Chonburi Province will host 16 sports with a total of 359 gold medals contested.
