Ashgabat-2017: Hoisting the Olympic flag
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In the evening of September 13, when the hands of the clock pointed to 17 hours and 17 minutes, the ceremony of raising the flag of Turkmenistan and the flag of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) began in Ashgabat's Olympic town.
Two days are left until that time, when audience, sportsmen, sport-fans from different countries will gather at the forty five thousand capacity Olympic stadium in the Turkmen capital. On September 17th, 2017 the Grand Opening of the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games and grandiose festive show will take place there.
In honor of this date, today's uplift of the Flags was timed to coincide with the time of the opening at 17:17. (It is clear that the organizers of the Games attach great importance to the symbolism of numbers).
On the days remaining before the Games, flags of other countries, which will take part in the 5th Asian Games, will be raised on the same platform with flagpoles.
A distinctive feature of the upcoming Games is that they will be attended by a team of refugees on equality basis with the athletes from 45 states, and not only of the Asian part of the continent, but also 17 countries of Oceania.
It is predicted that about 6 thousand competitors, the first of whom have already arrived in the Turkmen capital, will contest for medals in 21 sports.
Approximately 30 thousand foreign guests and several hundred journalists are also expected to arrive.
Delegations from the countries and guests of the 5th Asian Games have already started coming from different countries to Ashgabat these days. The 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Turkmenistan with pride and love are called the Games “Ashgabat 2017”.
