From athletes with an Olympic pedigree to those who hope to add a Beijing medal to their collection, the Asian Games brings together some of the world's best in the last major multi-event competition before the 2008 Summer Games.

Liu Xiang

The games officially begin Friday with opening ceremonies choreographed by Sydney 2000 Olympic artistic director David Atkins. By the time the Asian showcase ends on December 15, the 16-day games in this Arabian Gulf country will have brought together 10,500 athletes.

The 39 sports range from traditional pursuits such as athletics, swimming and baseball to more obscure ones such as the Indian rural pastime of kabaddi and the centuries-old Malay ball game of sepak takraw, which is similar to volleyball but played with the feet.

Headlining the list of Olympic stars are Liu Xiang, who shot to celebrity in China after winning the Athens Olympic gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles in world record-equaling time, 2004 Olympic gold medal-winning breaststroke swimmer Kosuke Kitajima of Japan and Thailand's weightlifting gold medalists Pawina Thongsuk and Manus Boonjamnong.

Wang Nan.

Olympic champions Wang Nan and Ma Lin are on China's table tennis team, while defending singles champion Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand and India's Sania Mirza are the highest-profile players in the tennis competition.

Malaysia's Nicol David, who last weekend won the World Open squash title in Belfast, comes into the Asian Games competition having won six straight titles.

Another high-profile athlete is teenage swimmer Park Tae-hwan of South Korea, who is aiming for three gold medals at Doha after winning the 400-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle at the Pan-Pacific swimming championships in August.

Park and his South Korean teammates are likely to march into Friday's opening ceremonies with their North Korean counterparts. While negotiations continued Thursday, it was expected that the two teams, whose countries are still officially at war, would march behind a "unification flag" like they did in 2002.

Yao Ming.

The track and field competition lost one of its highest-profile star when Saif Saaeed Shaheen, world record holder in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, withdrew with an Achilles tendon injury.

The 24-year-old Shaheen, born in Kenya but who has won two world championship titles for Qatar, was planning to run in the steeplechase and 5,000 meters at Doha.

In basketball, a Yao Ming-less China will still be the favored team. China will look to two other players _ one a former NBA player, the other a hopeful _ to take up the slack.

Wang Zhizhi returned to the national team this year after a lackluster career in the NBA, and 19-year-old Yi Jianlian has been given permission by his Chinese team to enter the NBA draft next year.

"For sure, it's not the same without Yao," China's Lithuanian-born coach Jonas Kazlauskas said this week. But, he adds, "we'll try."

China lost the basketball gold medal final to South Korea at Busan, South Korea in 2002, but China's team won a leading 150 gold medals. China also led the overall medal race in 2002 with 308, followed by South Korea with 260 and Japan with 190.

China, which has brought 647 athletes to Doha, is confident of winning the medal race again.

"Being No. 1 is for certain," team spokesman Zhang Haifeng said.

If so, they'll do it without some of their established stars in athletics, swimming and table tennis.

Among the biggest names omitted were the world's top-ranked men's and women's players in table tennis, Wang Liqin and Zhang Yining. Distance runner Xing Huina and 100-meters breaststroke champion Luo Xuejuan won't be at Doha either, although hurdles world record holder Liu will be, along with a women's tennis team that includes Li Na, the top-ranked Asian woman player.

Elsewhere, world champion Remy Ong of Singapore is considered a good bet for a medal in tenpin bowling. In 2002 he became the first Singaporean since 1951 to capture three gold medals in a single Asian Games, winning singles, masters and trios.

In billiards, two-time world champion Peter Gilchrist _ a former British citizen who became a Singaporean in August _ is expected to win gold.

The competition also features royalty, and one of the youngest athletes to ever take part in the Asian Games.

Thailand's delegation will include Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana, the granddaughter of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who will take part in the badminton competition.

And Alaa Shouhdy is a 10-year-old Qatar girl who will compete in the single-handed dinghy sailing event.

"It's a little bit scary," she replied when asked about heading out to the Arabian Gulf when her competition begins December 5.