The 2014 Incheon Asian Games will officially kick off with a grand opening ceremony on Friday to catch the eyes of 4.5 billion people across the continent for 16 days.

Incheon, South Korea’s main maritime gateway on the west coast, will be home to more than 14,000 athletes and staff from 45 countries until Oct. 4, who will be vying for 439 gold medals in 36 sports.

The Incheon Asiad is the third continental event hosted by South Korea following the Seoul Asiad in 1986 and the Busan Games in 2002.

China is expected to tighten its stranglehold in the quadrennial sporting event.

The superpower has topped every Asiad medal table since the 1982 event in New Delhi. At the Guangzhou Asiad four years ago, China earned an overwhelming 199 golds, while the runner-up South Korea took 76 gold medals.

Under the Chinese domination, South Korea and Japan have engaged in a seesaw battle to claim the second-place spot. Since the 1998 Bangkok Asiad, however, South Korea has occupied the second place in the medal rankings, and now eyes to extend its winning streak over Japan to five at this year’s Asian Games on its home turf.

The host country has dispatched its largest-ever Asiad delegation with 1,068 members, including 831 athletes competing in all 36 sports.

With home-field advantage and the backing of partisan crowds, South Korea expects to win more than 90 gold medals in shooting, fencing, archery, swimming and bowling, among other sports, to cement its status as Asia’s second-best sporting nation over Japan.

The gold-medal campaign will start at the shooting range Saturday, the first day of competition after the opening ceremony.

Olympic gold medalist Kim Jang-mi will shoot for her first Asiad gold in the 10-meter air pistol, and three-time Olympic gold medalist and reigning world champion Jin Jong-oh will compete in his bread and butter, the men’s 50-meter pistol.

Judokas will join the hunt, with Kim Won-jin set to earn gold in the men’s 68-kilogram category and Jeong Bo-kyeong in the women’s 48-kilogram event. Olympic fencing champ Kim Ji-yeon is highly favored in the women’s sabre on the same day.

On Sunday, Yang Hak-seon, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist and the two-time reigning world champ in the men’s vault, will put his world-class skills on full display in his first Asiad appearance in the team event. In vault, Yang will likely have to edge out Ri Se-gwang of North Korea for the gold. Ri is the 2006 Asiad champ and was one of the continent’s top vaulters before Yang arrived on the scene.

On the fifth day, Sept. 24, weightlifter Sa Jae-hyouk, former Olympic champion, seeks Asiad gold in the men’s 85 kg to show that he has fully recovered from a serious elbow injury suffered in 2012.

On Sept. 28, archery and golf are expected to bring South Korea’s gold medals up to eight, and baseball and the men’s badminton doubles are also primed to make headlines.

Archery has been South Korea’s biggest gold mine at the Asiad, and the country is expected to win multiple medals from both recurve and compound. South Korea swept up all four gold medals up for grabs in the recurve in 2010. The compound event will be contested at an Asiad for the first time this year.

Shuttler Lee Yong-dae, the former Olympic gold medalist and the No. 1-ranked doubles player, will seek his first Asian Games gold with his partner Yoo Yeon-seong.

Swimmer Park Tae-hwan is hoping to show that he is on his way back to top form after failing to defend his Olympic gold in the 400-meter freestyle in London. He will compete in seven disciplines, including the 100, 200, 400, 1,500 freestyle and 4x100 relay, and targets at least three titles.

In October, rhythmic gymnastics kicks off, with Son Yeon-jae, the highest-ranked Asian at No. 5 in the world, expected to become the first South Korean to win an Asiad gold.

The 20-year-old gymnast has been on a roll since she won her first career individual all-around World Cup title in Lisbon in April, raising hopes for a historic title here. (Yonhap)