East Timor competed in the 2002 Asian Games held in Busan, South Korea, from September 29 to October 14, 2002. East Timor was the newest Asian country—it declared its independence four months before the Games on May 20, 2002—and participated in the Asian Games for the first time after the independence from Indonesia.[1][2] Indonesia invaded the nation on December 7, 1975, and left in October 19, 1999 after the UN-supervised referendum.[3][4]
East Timor sent a delegation of 15 competitors and 17 officials. The delegation included only one woman athlete, Mariana Diaz Ximenez, who participated in the marathon. The East Timorese delegation was one of the smallest among the participating nations and territories, only Laos had fewer athletes (13) than East Timor.[5] East Timor was one of the five National Olympic Committees that won no medals at the Games.[6][7]
Delegation
The delegation of East Timor for the 2002 Asian Games consisted 15 athletes and 17 officials. João Viegas Carrascalão accompanied the delegation as East Timor's Asian Games chef de mission.[8]
The sole woman athlete to represent the nation was Mariana Diaz Ximenez, who participated in the marathon. Ximenez finished ninth of the 11 women participants, in this event in which two athletes did not finish the race. The personal best of Ximenez before the event was 2:34:08, but she achieved a time of 3:22:03.[9][10]
East Timor's boxing squad for the Games included two boxers Felix Barreto and Victor Ramos, competing in the flyweight and lightweight classes respectively. Both failed to earn a single point in their respective bouts, and were eliminated in the first round of the event.
Jorge Pereira was the only cyclist from the East Timor to compete. He participated in the four different cycling events– road race, individual time trial, 1 km time trial and individual pursuit. Individual time trial (48.4 km) was the only event in which Pereira completed the race, with a 15th position.
East Timor entered two karateka—Antonio de Araújo and Filomeno Soares—into the karate competition in Busan. De Araújo got a bye in the 1st preliminary round and lost to Hussain Al-Qattan of Kuwait in the quarterfinals, without gaining a single point.[18][19] Soares eliminated in the first round after losing to Farman Ahmed of Pakistan.[20]
Gil Fernandes competed for East Timor in the −67 kg weight class. He got bye in the first round and lost the pre-quarterfinal match to Pavel Yugay of Uzbekistan after the referee stopped the contest (RSC).[22][23]
Two competitors—Antonio Mendes and Matias de Souza—competed for the East Timor in two tennis events in the Geumjeong Tennis Stadium. Mendes lost his first match to Sergei Makashin of Tajikistan, while De Souza reached the second round but lost to Rohan Bopanna of India.
Martinho de Araújo was the sole competitor for East Timor in weightlifting, competing in the bantamweight class. De Araújo was the first East Timorese at the Olympics, he represented East Timor in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney in the same weight class.[24] In the 2002 Asian Games, his highest successfully lifted weight in snatch was 67.5 kg, out of 65 and 67.5 kg, and in clean and jerk his best was 90 kg, he also tried two failed attempts for 95 and 100 kg. De Araújo finished in 13th place in the final standings with a total of 157.5 kg, least among all the ranked weightlifters.[25]
a RSCO refers to Referee Stopped Contest – Outclassed Opponent. Referee stops the boxing bout if a boxer is seriously injured, if one boxer is significantly dominating the other or if the score is severely imbalanced.
^"About Timor-Leste". gov.east-timor.org. Government of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. Archived from the original on March 21, 2012. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
^"On target – South Korean archers hit world mark". CNN. Reuters. September 16, 2000. Retrieved September 8, 2011. Weightlifter Martinho de Araujo made history by becoming the first East Timorese to compete as an independent athlete at the Olympic Games
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