Asian Games: Thousands flood in ahead of gala opening

INCHEON, South Korea: Thousands of athletes and officials gathered in Incheon on Wednesday as the clock ticked down to Asia´s biggest sports spectacular and organisers fretted over low ticket sales.

Long queues formed at South Korea´s Incheon airport two days ahead of the start of the Asian Games, an Olympic-size event with 36 sports, 45 countries and about 10,000 athletes.

China, with roughly one-tenth of the competitors, will dominate proceedings, four years after walking off with a record 199 golds and 416 medals overall at Guangzhou 2010.

China´s Olympic swim stars Sun Yang, Ye Shiwen and badminton´s Lin Dan will hog the limelight along with Japan´s emerging athletes and South Korean home favourites.

Attention is also focusing on North Korea´s team as they make the rare and politically sensitive trip south to compete for their sports-loving supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un.

The Games will be declared open at a gala ceremony in Incheon´s 62,000-seat, purpose-built main stadium on Friday, headlined by K-Pop stars and "Gangnam Style" singer Psy.

Incheon organisers are calling it a "frugal" Games which at about $2 billion, is costing a fraction of Guangzhou 2010 and pales in comparison with the Beijing and Sochi Olympics.