East Timor at the 2002 Asian Games |
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IOC code | TLS | ||||||||
NOC | National Olympic Committee of Timor-Leste | ||||||||
in Busan | |||||||||
Competitors | 15 | ||||||||
Medals |
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Officials | 17 | ||||||||
Asian Games appearances (overview) | |||||||||
Timor-Leste (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. Indonesia invaded the nation on December 7, 1975, and left in October 19, 1999 after the UN-supervised referendum.
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. East Timor was one of the five National Olympic Committees that won no medals at the Games.
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.
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.
Xavier do Rego participated for East Timor in the marathon and finished 14th out of 15 athletes, with one athlete not finishing the race.