Asian Games 2022 in China deferred: Organizers

The Asian Games in Hangzhou in September have been postponed indefinitely, organisers said on Friday, amid an increasing number of Covid-19 cases in China.

While no reason was provided for this delay, China is working to halt its largest COVID-19 outbreak since the early days of the pandemic.

The Asian Olympic Council has announced that the19th Asian games, initially planned to take place in Hangzhou, China will be delayed from September 10 to 25, 2022, said a statement on the Games’ official website, first published in China’s state media.

The new schedule for the sporting event “will be announced later”, the statement added.

Hangzhou, the host city, is near the country’s largest city, Shanghai, which was locked down for a week under the Communist Party’s zero-tolerance approach to the virus.

Organisers said last month that Hangzhou, a city of 12 million people in East China, had completed the construction of some 56 venues for the Asian and Para-Asian Games.

They expected they had a plan to hold the events under a virus control plan that “learns from the successful experience” of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games that took place in February in a COVID-protected bubble.