By Yoon Chul
The South Korean baseball team headed to Guangzhou, Wednesday, eager to reclaim the top spot at the Asian Games.
But the team of strong gold medal contenders managed by Cho Bum-hyun arrived at the Aoti Baseball Field – the venue for the first preliminary match against Taiwan, Saturday – and were unable to practice.
Cho decided not to practice because the first training session for the national team was set for 1 p.m. by the Guangzhou Asian Games organizing body which was immediately as they arrived at Baiyun International Airport at 1 p.m. (local time).
And the other two training sessions are scheduled in the morning while the match against Taiwan will be held at night.
“We are not allowed to work out in the evenings,” Cho told Yonhap. “Given this, we have obstacles in working out the evening weather and lights of the stadium,” Cho said.
Korea had their first training session at 10:30 a.m., Thursday and Friday training starts at 8:30 a.m.
Korea, desperate to improve its third-place finish in Doha where it lost to Taiwan and Japan won’t have the chance to step on the Aoti Baseball Field because all of the training sessions are at the Aoti Baseball Field II.
“The teams that arrived first were given priority in choosing their training schedule timeslots. We will try to practice at other venues on our own but the circumstances will be tough,” Cho said.
yc@koreatimes.co.kr