Asian Games 2022 postponed indefinitely as China battles COVID

Asian Games 2022 have been postponed indefinitely as China battles COVID!

2022 Asian Games were scheduled to be held in China’s city of Hangzhou from September 10 to 25.

More than 11,000 athletes from 44 countries were expected to take part in the 19th Asian Games.

Hangzhou completed constructing some 56 competition venues for the Asian Games and Asian Para Games.

“Following detailed discussions with the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) and the Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (HAGOC), the OCA Executive Board (EB) today decided to postpone the 19th Asian Games, which were scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China, from September 10-25, 2022,” said the Olympic Council of Asia in a statement.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said in a statement on Friday announced that the decision to postpone “was taken by all the stakeholders after carefully considering the pandemic situation and the size of the Games”.

New dates for the Games, which typically attract more than 10,000 athletes from across the region, will be announced “in the near future”, the statement said.

While the name and emblem of the 19th Asian Games will remain unchanged.

The World University Games, scheduled to begin next month in Chengdu and already delayed once from last year, have also been postponed again until 2023, organisers added.

“After discussion with the COC and the Organising Committee, the OCA EB decided that as the Asian Youth Games had already been postponed once, the Asian Youth Games Shantou 2021 will be cancelled. The next Asian Youth Games will therefore be held in 2025 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan,” it said.

The International University Sports Federation (FISU) said rescheduling was the best option given “continued uncertainty over conditions”.