JAKARTA: As the continent gears up to celebrate the quadrennial sports bonanza. Let's have a look at the factbox on the Asian Games 2018, which will be hosted by Indonesia from August 18 to September 2:
- Location: Jakarta and Palembang in Sumatra
- Sports: 40, including 32 of the 33 that will be staged at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (with the exception of surfing). There will be others that are popular in Asia such as wushu, a Chinese martial art, and sepak takraw, which is similar to volleyball but played with the feet.
- Special appearance: pencak silat, a traditional Indonesian martial art, will make its Asian Games debut at Jakarta-Palembang 2018. Other sports being contested for the first time include jet-skiing, paragliding and bridge.
- Demonstration sports: eSports and canoe polo
- Participants: About 18,000 athletes and officials from 45 countries including Palestine, East Timor and North Korea. There will be joint North and South Korean teams in three sports: canoeing, rowing and women's basketball.
- Security: Some 40,000 troops and police officers. Security is in focus after Indonesia suffered its deadliest terror attack in more than a decade in May.
- Event history: The first Asiad was held in Delhi in 1951 and featured athletics, swimming, diving, water polo, basketball, cycling, football and weightlifting. Jakarta has hosted the games once before, in 1962, when there were fewer than 1,500 athletes and 13 sports.