ASIAN FLAVOUR

The athletes range in age from 10-year-old Qatari sailor Alaa Shouhdy to 65-year-old grandfather of four Alan Puan, who will take part in the billiards competition for Singapore.

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Billiards is just one of the non-Olympic sports featuring in the Games with kabaddi, wushu, karate, equestrian endurance racing and sepaktakraw giving a distinctly Asian flavour to the continental event.

The introduction of triathlon for the first time gives an opportunity for the physically fittest Asians to show their form but there is also room for the more cerebral with chess making its debut.

China's 928-strong sporting Red Army is already in town as are the large delegations from the other two East Asian powerhouses likely to dominate the medals table, South Korea and Japan.

At the other end of the scale there are the seven tenpin bowling and karate competitors from tiny Brunei and the 14 men and one woman from Laos.

No expense has been spared to ensure Friday's ceremony is a spectacular affair with producer David Atkins promising a show bigger in scope and scale than the Sydney Olympics opener he produced.

"It will be a show everyone will remember and every Qatari citizen will be proud of," said Sharif Omar Hashisho, director of ceremonies.

The biggest hitch might be the least expected in a country made up entirely of desert, with the Qatar Meteorological Department forecasting seven millimetres of precipitation on Friday -- a tenth of the usual annual rainfall.

"Bring an umbrella," Hashisho advised.

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