The opening ceremony of Asia's sports extravaganza begins tonight at the Khalifa Stadium after a spectacular 50,000 km torch relay covering 15 countries and regions.

The huge ceremony will be highlighted the lighting of the torch and feature athletes, singers, dancers, trapeze artists and even horses. Representatives from 45 countries and regions will enter stage led by their flag bearers, with the ceremony expected to last about three hours.

No specific scenes have been disclosed but a lot to be expected.

After a one-hour pre-show, the main event, reportedly involving more than 7,000 performers, begins at 7pm local time and is expected to be watched by a potential worldwide audience of more than 3 billion people.

The Asian Games, featuring more than 10,500 athletes and officials, who are competing in 39 sports, is Doha's biggest undertaking so far, but sports officials in Qatar consider it just the beginning.

The Qatar Olympic Committee has already revealed plans to bid for the 2016 Olympic Games when the IOC opens the applications process next year.

Qatar will be up against stiff competition for the 2016 Summer Games, including Tokyo, Madrid, New Delhi, Prague, Rio de Janeiro and Rome. The United States may also field a candidate, most likely Chicago or Los Angeles after San Francisco abandoned its bid earlier this month.

Qatar spent US$2.8 billion on preparing venues for the Asian games, including a major upgrade to the 40,000-seat Khalifa Stadium and the construction of the Aspire indoor sports complex, the world's largest indoor multi-sports dome.

Rumours surround Yi

The Chinese delegation is the seventh into the stadium. Basketball sensation Yi Jianlian has been at the centre of rumours but said he had no idea whether or not he would bear the flag for China at the opening ceremony.

"I just read the news from the press, and I prefer not to take it seriously since till now nobody told me such a thing," said the 19-year-old centre, who led the Guangdong club to win the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league titles consecutively during the 2003-2006 seasons.

Speculations have been around before the Chinese delegation's departure for Doha that the 2.12-metre Yi was the most promising candidate for China's flag bearer since NBA star Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets, who marched up with the flag in the Athens Olympics in 2004, announced he would skip the December 1-15 Asiad.

However a senior Chinese sports official said China's flag bearer would not have to be "tall".

"I think the flag bearer should have achieved good results in major international tournament, like world title. Also he or she should have good sportsmanship and look healthy and pretty," said Cui Dalin, deputy chef-de-mission of the Chinese delegation.

"It does not make sense that a flag bearer should be a male athlete.

"At Turin Winter Olympics, Yang Yang A was the flag bearer and I think she totally matches what we want her to show in the international stage."

China sent a team with an unprecedented number of rookies but still proved too strong and leapfrogged to the top of medal standings.

"The Asian Games are one of the biggest sports event in the world and China is sending a large scale delegation to participate in the Games," said Liu Peng, chef-de-mission of the delegation and president of the State General Administration of Sports.

China has dominated the quadrennial tournament for six times in a row since the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, India, and this year is sending 647 athletes to compete in 37 out of 39 events.

"The Chinese delegation will strive to top the medals table for the seventh time running," said Duan Shijie, deputy chef-de-mission of the Chinese Sports Delegation and vice president of the State General Administration of Sports.

China's first gold is likely to come from the women's trap team event or the men's air rifle team event on Saturday.

(China Daily December 1, 2006)