Hangzhou Asian Games postponed indefinitely due to Covid-19

A logo of the 2022 Asian Games is seen in Hangzhou, in China's eastern Zhejiang Province on May 6. [AFP/YONHAP]

The Hangzhou Asian Games originally scheduled to take place from Sept. 10 to 25 this year have been postponed indefinitely due to Covid-19, Asia's top sports body, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), announced Friday.

The Olympic Council of Asia Executive Board decided to postpone the 19th Asian Games after detailed discussions with the Chinese Olympic Committee and the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee, stating that the decision was made "after carefully considering the pandemic situation and the size of the Games" and that new dates will be announced sometime in the future.

"[The organizing committee] has been very well prepared to deliver the [Asian] Games on time despite global challenges,” the OCA said in a statement released on its website.

“However, the above decision was taken by all the stakeholders after carefully considering the pandemic situation and the size of the Games. The name and the emblem of the 19th Asian Games will remain unchanged, and the OCA believes that the Games will achieve complete success through the joint efforts of all parties."

The Asian Games are a quadrennial multi-sport competition for Asian countries in which more than 10,000 athletes compete, rivaling the size of the Summer Games.

The last time the Asian Summer Games took place was in 2018 at Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia where 11,300 athletes from 45 countries vied for 465 gold medals in 40 sports. In contrast, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held last summer featured about 11,600 athletes from 206 nations, competing for 339 gold medals in 33 sports.

Along with the Asian Games, other international sports events in China have recently been postponed or canceled.

The International University Sport Federation (FISU) announced Friday that the Chengdu 2021 World University Games, the biennial multi-sport competition for student athletes that were scheduled to be held from June 6 to July 7 in Chengdu, have been postponed until 2023.

This is the second consecutive year for the FISU Games to be postponed. The Games had been rescheduled to June this year after being initially scheduled for the summer of 2021.

The Asian Youth Games that were scheduled to be held this Dec. 20 to 28 at Shantou, Guangdong, were ultimately canceled after having been postponed once already. The next Asian Youth Games will be held in three years time in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]