The 2022 Asian Games have been postponed, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said in a statement. The 2022 Asian Games were scheduled to be held in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou in September
China is battling an ongoing wave of Omicron-led Covid-19 resurrection in several parts of the country. The conclusion to shelve the Asian Games was taken at an OCA executive board meeting in Tashkent on Friday.
The Games will now be held in 2023, a report from New Delhi said.
“The Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee has been very well prepared to deliver the Games on time despite global challenges. However, the above decision was taken by all the stakeholders after carefully considering the pandemic situation and the size of the Games,” the OCA said in a statement.
Officially, the decision to defer the upcoming Games was taken after consultations between OCA and the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) and the Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (HAGOC),- Chinese state media reports said on Friday afternoon.
“unswervingly adhere to the general policy of ‘dynamic zero-Covid’, and resolutely fight against any words and acts that distort, doubt or deny our country’s epidemic prevention policies.”- President Xi Jinping said On Thursday, heading over a meeting of the top Communist Party of China (CPC) leadership.
“Our prevention and control strategy is determined by the party’s nature and mission, our policies can stand the test of history, (and) our measures are scientific and effective,”- the seven-member Standing Committee of the CPC’s Politburo, China’s top decision-making body, official news agency Xinhua reported.
In the recent reports of Chinese state media, it was informed that Hangzhou was comprehensively scheduled and prepared for the Games.
“With almost half a year to go before the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, venues are ready for a Green, Smart, Economical and Ethical Asian Games,” the official news agency, Xinhua, said in a report in March.
“Yangshan Sports Climbing Center, located in Keqiao District, Shaoxing, is the last venue scheduled to be finished by the end of March 2022, among the construction of all venues. As it passed the inspection of sports events function…, all 56 venues for the Hangzhou Asian Games and the Asian Para Games have been completed,” the report said.
