Eat all you can, watch your calories

BUSAN – Food is never a problem for the more than 11,000 athletes and officials staying at the sprawling athletes’ village for the duration of the Busan Asian Games here.

The main dining area inside the village is open 24 hours a day, serving the best food there is — ham, cheese, sausages, eggs and bread for breakfast, and roast beef, fish, shrimp, pork, vegetables and rice for lunch and dinner.

There’s an abundance of fruits, milk and chocolate, too. And there’s a ton of kimchi, of course, for those who like it hot.

"Okay naman ang pagkain. Libre pa. Madaming prutas," said boxer Romeo Brin, in his third Asian Games and a veteran of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

"Twenty-four hours open ang dining area… di every two hours kumakain ako. Hindi talaga magugutom ditto," said Olsen Racela, the starting point guard of the RP basketball team.

Media Blitz: Over 8,000 journalists representing the record 44 competing countries have converged in this clean, orderly port city to cover the biggest Asian Games ever.

The members of the media consist of 3,269 reporters, 3,226 broadcasting right holders, and 1,532 host broadcasting members, booking a new record in attendance and eclipsing the previous high of 6,000 accredited newsmen in the 1994 Hiroshima Games.

The Filipino group, numbering 30 Manila-based members of the media, has one big problem, though: the high cost of transmitting their stories to Manila.

Faxing a page of a single-spaced article would cost you 5,000 won ($4) or easily P200. The same thing goes for e-mailing an article through the internet. A phone call costs a dollar a minute. And to think that one has to submit at least three articles a day — for 20 days.

Tall, Tan, Young and Lovely: There’s an Anna Kournikova deadringer here in Busan. And she’s Albina Ahmerova, a smiling 18-year-old and tanned 5-foot-8 rower from Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic.

Albina, a first-timer in the Asian Games, is easily the biggest head-turner here whenever she goes out to compete, strolls inside the athletes’ village or visits the dining hall, one day clad in a tight, all-black Adidas outfit — training pants, mid-rib tops and sneakers.

"Good experience," mumbled Albina, with her long blonde hair, when asked how she felt competing in the Asian Games.

And told that she looks like the Russian tennis sensation, currently the hottest pin-up girl in women’s sport, Albina smiled, then laughed, and said: "Anna? Tennis? Nah."

Apples, Peers Galore: Filipino-Korean communities are doing their part in looking after the welfare of Filipino athletes competing in the ongoing Asian Games as one Korean businessman donated 50 boxes of apples and peers to the RP contingent.

Hyun Mo Park, a businessman married to a Filipino-Chinese based in Malabon, made donation of the fruits harvested from Baejeon, a neighboring city of Busan, and delivered them to the Filipinos in the Athletes Village.

"Baejeon fruits are one of the best in the world," said Ariel Paredes, an official of the Philippine Sports Commission who coordinated the donation with the Rotary International District 3680 under Baejeon district governor Lee Soon Beon.

The others involved in the project are secretary general Noon Bo Shik and Baejeon West president Lee San Kyu.