15th Asian Games

KUWAIT -- The South Korean port city of Incheon Tuesday won the right to host the 2014 Asian Games, fending off a challenge from New Delhi to hold the lucrative multi-sport event.

It is the third time Korea has been picked following Seoul in 1986 and Busan in 2002.

Incheon bid leader Shin Yong-Suk was ecstatic as his team burst into raucous celebrations after months of lobbying and pledged the world would see the best ever Games in seven years' time.

"I am happy from the bottom of my heart," he said.

"I promise that 2014 will be the most successful Games ever. This century is the century of Asia."

The New Delhi delegation was devastated after insisting all week that it was the frontrunner and had a right to win, having been overlooked since it was last selected in 1982.

Indian bid chief Suresh Kalmadi blamed the country's sports minister, Mani Shankar Aiyer, for ruining their chances after he was quoted as saying last week that hosting major sporting events held no relevance to the common man.

"We lost and the sports minister won," he told reporters. "I don't know what else went against us."

The vote swung in Incheon's favor after frantic last-minute canvassing by both sides of the 45 Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) nations that make up the body that controls sport in the region.

In announcing the decision, OCA president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah insisted there were no winners and no losers.

"The only winner is the Asian Olympic movement and the growth of the Asian Games," he said.

"Incheon is a well organized economic city and they have worked hard to market their city. It was very close. They both had weak points and strong points. From a marketing viewpoint Korea had the edge."

The Asiad is expected to have a massive economic impact on Incheon with officials forecasting it will create 270,000 new jobs and attract huge foreign investment.

The city currently has 11 Olympic-standard sports facilities with four more being upgraded and five new stadiums in the planning phase. Another 17 facilities be built before the event, including new aquatics and tennis complexes.

It promised in its presentation, based on the theme "One United Asia," that all the facilities would be built in an environmentally friendly manner, and outlined plans for an international cultural festival to coincide with the Games.

Korea will now organize an inter-ministerial support committee headed by new Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo, appointed last month, to mobilize resources for the Games.

Prior to the final vote, Incheon promised to raise 20 million dollars to support Asian countries that have not yet won medals in the Asian Games.

New Delhi was unable to match that figure.

"Korea's accumulated experience from hosting some of the world's greatest sporting events together with its advanced infrastructure, its surging economy and its passion for sports means Incheon is a safe bet," the presentation said.

"The events will encourage friendship and unity on the Korean peninsula, in Northeast Asia and across the continent."

Incheon, a commercial and logistics hub for Northeast Asia with a population of 2.4 million, is best known as being the country's key gateway. South Korea's main international airport opened near the city in 2001.

New Delhi had based its "bid of a billion people" on its hospitality and said publicly it would offer free flights and accommodation to all the participants if it won.

It also said it would have the necessary infrastructure in place with the Commonwealth Games being held in Delhi in 2010.

Hosting an Asian Games is a monumental task and the bar was set even higher by Doha in December, which staged what was generally considered the best Asiad to date.

Guangzhou in China hosts the 2010 event.