NAGOYA: Torrential rains battered this city last week, forcing evacuations, disrupting train services and even prompting the rescheduling of some Asian Games events. Step into Nagoya today, though, and there is little sign any of it ever happened.As the city braces for the possibility of Typhoon Dujuan hitting the Aichi-Nagoya coast on Monday next, another storm has been brewing around the organising committee. Sustainability and cost-cutting may have been at the heart of the decision to do away with a traditional Games village, but the arrangement has instead triggered chaos and confusion for hundreds of athletes and officials.For many of the 17,000 athletes and officials arriving in the city, the wait at the airport to get their credentials validated and transport arranged has been at least three hours, with some stranded for as long as 14 hours. Already weary from their journey, they were left waiting at the airport, with food and basic arrangements becoming an issue.The problems, which began earlier in the week, continued on Thursday, two days before the Games officially open on Saturday. The confusion did not end at the airport. Athletes arriving at their accommodation were faced with uncertainty over room allocation, with even the hosts caught up in the mess. A section of the Japanese contingent had to seek alternative arrangements after men and women were allotted shared rooms. Indian Olympic Association officials too faced room-allocation issues and were left without accommodation before alternative arrangements were eventually made. Space has emerged as another concern. While compact accommodation is hardly unfamiliar in Japan, the cramped quarters have taken several contingents by surprise. The Costa Serena cruise ship, docked at Kinjo Pier, is housing around 4,000 athletes.Japan’s deputy chef de mission Hisashi Mizutori acknowledged the problems at a press conference on Thursday. “Since the cruise ship village opened, athletes have been arriving and going through the entry procedures. However, the process took a significant amount of time due to issues with activation of their credentials,” he said.The container-style huts, built with an eye on future use as disaster evacuation facilities, have also come under scrutiny. “There is no space to store luggage and we are not here for few days but three weeks, so it’s a challenge in the containers. The ones built for acclimatisation back home by Sports Authority of India were much bigger,” rued an IOA official, an Asian Games veteran. Food has been another source of discontent. While some contingents found fare difficult to adapt, others complained that quantities were inadequate and were forced to eat outside.Travel woes for shootersLogistical problems continued to hit contingents on Thursday. With venues spread across the region and accommodation located some distance away, athletes have been spending hours on the road and, in some cases, missing scheduled training slots. The Indian shooting team was among those affected. The journey from their accommodation to the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery was expected to take around 75 minutes. Instead, the team took more than two hours to reach the venue after waiting nearly three hours for transport to arrive.By then, the Indians had missed their allotted practice slot and had to wait for other teams to finish before getting their turn. Away from the chaos, Nagoya is preparing to welcome the Asian Games back to Japan after a 32-year gap. The industrial and automotive hub is decked out in Games posters and buntings, with trains, subways and streets carrying the colours of the event.Amid the organisational troubles, locals have stepped up. Impromptu volunteers are helping athletes and visitors to navigate the sprawling venues, decipher an unfamiliar language and even find food
