Revealed: OCA announces new dates for Asian Games 2022

The quadrennial event has been postponed by a year due to a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 in China.

The Olympics Council of Asia (OCA) has announced the new dates for the postponed Asian Games 2022. The OCA revealed the new dates for the Hangzhou Games 2022 - September 23 to October 8, 2023.

Scheduled to happen in the month of September 2022 previously, the OCA had to postpone the Asiad. The postponement was due to the rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in and around the host city. Fans would have experienced the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games within a space of two weeks.

After postponing the Hangzhou Games, the OCA formed a committee that worked in tandem with the Chinese Olympic Committee to figure out the best possible timeline for the Asiad. The two committees agreed on the months of September 2023 and October 2023 to be the right time. The timeline was picked to avoid clashes with any major international sporting meets.

The Olympics Council of Asia thanked the Chinese Olympic Committee, the Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (HAGOC), the government and the other stakeholders in a press release for working together to figure out the right window to conduct the Asiad and for the patience the organisations showed in the process.

“The OCA thanks HAGOC, the Chinese Olympic Committee, as well as the governments at all levels for ensuring they (Asian Games) can take place next year,” the statement from the OCA read.

“The OCA would also like to express its appreciation for the patience shown by the national Olympic committees, international/Asian federations and other stakeholders,” the OCA continued.

About the games

Hangzhou Games 2022 is the 19th edition of the Asian Games. It will be the third time the quadrennial event is going to happen in China. China has won the hosting rights for the Asian Games twice since the turn of the 21st century. Before Hangzhou 2022, China hosted the Asiad in 1990 and 2010 in Beijing and Guangzhou, respectively.

Hangzhou Games 2022 biggest talking point has been the inclusion of e-Sports as medal events. It will be for the first time in the Asian Games after successful trials as demonstration events in the edition of Jakarta, Indonesia.

Other new additions at the Hangzhou Games are baseball, softball, karate, sport climbing, and break-dancing. Them being medal events or demonstration sports at the Summer Olympics of 2020 and 2024 are the rationale behind the inclusion of these sports in the Asian Games 2022.

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