S Korean town expects IOC support in sprawl-cut plan

SEOUL, Sep 13 (Reuters) The South Korean town campaigning to host the 2014 Winter Olympics expects the IOC to back its plan to make the Games more centralised by slashing the number of locations it will hold events from five to two.

Pyeongchang, a rustic town in mountainous Kangwon Province on the east of the peninsula, is bidding again to host the Winter Olympics after narrowly losing out to Vancouver, Canada, to hold to 2010 Games.

It had planned to hold events in five places. This week, it said it had changed its plan and aims to hold events in two places located about 30 minutes apart -- saying too many locales make transport for athletes, officials and spectators inconvenient.

''I am actually comfortable with the reaction the IOC might have for our change, because the IOC has said the more compact plans are better,'' Kim Jin-sun, Kangwon Province governor and executive president of the bid committee told an Olympic news Web site.

''The job of a host city is to create the best conditions for athletes. That's why we are presenting this more compact concept,'' Kim said in an interview with Around the Rings posted yesterday.

''The decision came when I was visiting Torino for the Olympic Games. I travelled a lot. I learned a lot. And I made a decision to make these changes,'' he said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) in June named Pyeongchang, Salzburg, Austria and Russia's Sochi on its shortlist to host the 2014 Games. The host city will be chosen in July 2007.

Asia has hosted only two Winter Games, both in Japan -- Sapporo hosted the 1972 Games and Nagano the 1998 event.

REUTERS PDS DS1420