Nagoya, Sep 18 (IANS) In a bizarre mix-up, the national anthem of North Korea was played before the hockey match of South Korea's men's team against Bangladesh at the Asian Games 2026 on Friday.
The incident left the South Korean players baffled, with some players running their hands through their hair over the mishap ahead of their game at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Gifu, which remains nearly 30 kilometres from Nagoya. The organisers corrected the mistake and played South Korea's anthem after playing Bangladesh's national anthem.
According to Yonhap, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee stated that it "lodged an official complaint with the organising committee over the anthem mix-up, demanding an official apology and prevention of a recurrence."
It added that the match was delayed and the referee ordered players to shake hands and get ready to play even before the anthem ended.
Korea defeated Bangladesh 5-0 in the pool game with Sim Jae-won, Lee Gang-san, Oh Se-yong, Bae Soung-min and Yang Ji-hun scoring one goal each.
The 2023 Asiad bronze winners made light work of Bangladesh but were not taking their opponents lightly. "We saw Bangladesh as a dark horse. We wanted to lock things down defensively in the first quarter," South Korea head coach Min Tae-seok said as quoted by Yonhap.
"And then we wanted to be more aggressive in the second quarter. And our players scored those goals after making their adjustments to the venue."
Min also spoke on the anthem mishap. "I can't believe something like this happened at an international competition," Min said.
South Korea and Bangladesh are placed in Pool A along with four other teams, which also include defending gold medallists India, hosts and 2023 silver winners Japan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Meanwhile, South Korea women also won their opener against Chinese Taipei 3-1 in Pool A later.
--IANS
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