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The Asian Games 2022 scheduled to take place in Hangzhou in September are postponed indefinitely, with a surge of Covid cases in China. No specific reason was provided for the delay, but China hurrying to halt their largest Covid-19 outbreak since the early days of the pandemic. The city of Hangzhou, which is just 176 km away from China's biggest city, Shanghai has been put under weeks-long lockdown.
The official Asian Games website issued a statement addressing the postponement that said, “The Olympic Council of Asia has announced that the 19th Asian Games, originally scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 10 to 25, 2022, will be postponed.”
The entirety of the Asian Games was planned to be hosted in a total of 44 new venues. The organisers had declared that the construction of all these venues is concluded. But now as the mega-event is postponed, China will have to take on the extreme costs for the same.
The speculations surrounding the postponement were brewing a few days back when the organisers had assured the event will go through on the previous dates. "The OCA has written to Beijing to get more clarity on the situation and we are waiting for a report," he said. "The matter will be taken up for discussion at the OCA executive board meeting in Tashkent on May 6."
The President of the Olympic Council of Malaysia Norza Zakaria had also confirmed the news as he said, “The Asian Games 2022 in China is going ahead,” to the AFP on Saturday. “We have checked with OCA (the Olympic Council of Asia) and the organising committee.”
India Sports minister Anurag Thakur also talked about the Covid-19 situation in China days before today’s announcement about the postponement. He said, "What is the situation there (in China) and what the host nation is saying about the situation is important. "
He had also mentioned how India was supposed to take the call on it participation. "All other participating nations are discussing and in some time India will also take a decision but before that, the host nation should make it clear what are they thinking and how much prepared they are," the minister added.