China set to host Asian Games in September 2023

CHINA, (ANI): China is set to host the postponed Asian Games in September 2023, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced on Tuesday. The 19th edition of the Asian Games will now be held in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8 next year.

The OCA said on Tuesday that the new dates were chosen to avoid “conflict with other major international sporting events”. “The Task Force over the last two months held various discussions with the Chinese Olympic Committee, Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (HAGOC) and other stakeholders to find a window for the Games which did not conflict with other major international sporting events. The recommended dates by the Task Force were duly approved by the OCA EB,” OCA said in a statement.

The 19th Asian Games was originally planned to be held in Hangzhou from September 10 to 25 in 2022, however, due to the COVID 19 global pandemic the Games were postponed by the OCA Executive Board (EB) on May 6 in 2022 and a “Task Force” was created by the EB to finalise the new dates for the Games. Hangzhou lies less than 200 kilometres from the country’s largest city Shanghai, which went through a months-long lockdown at the beginning of 2022.

The host city Hangzhou is close to Shanghai which went through several weeks of lockdown. (ANI)