Busan: The Indian contingent to the Asian Games on Saturday assembled for a special occasion – the hoisting of the national flag at the Games village.

Chef-de-Mission of the 350-strong Indian contingent, Jagdish Tytler hoisted the tri- colour at a quiet function in the Games village in the presence of the participants and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) officials who have accompanied the contingent.

Although most of the Indian teams had reached a few days back, the flag hoisting ceremony was kept for on Saturday, just a day ahead of the opening ceremony, to allow some of the squads to reach the venue for the occasion.

The shooters were the first to reach the venue, coming a week ahead of the scheduled opening ceremony, to get acclimatised to the conditions while the footballers were the next to reach on September 23.

The men's and women's hockey team, judokas, weightlifters came here on September 25 along with the deputy chef-de-mission Col C P Singh Deo. The billiards, snooker, squash, table tennis, boxing, wrestling, golf teams came in the next batch and reached this picturesque port city on Friday.

The tennis, body building, kabaddi and volleyball teams were expected to arrive on September 30. The athletes will be the last team to come here mainly because the track and field events get underway from October 7.

Although they will reach here on October 4, K M Beenamol who has been selected the flag bearer for the opening ceremony, arrived on Saturday.

PTI