The upcoming Asian Games 2022, scheduled to be held in September in Hangzhou have been postponed indefinitely in light of the rising cases of Covid-19 in China, organizers said on Friday.
They did not provide any reason in their statement regarding the delay but China is battling its largest outbreak of the virus since the start of the pandemic.
“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,” read the statement on the official Games website.
The statement further added that the new dates for the sporting event “will be announced at a later date.”
Notably, Hangzhou, the city chosen to host the games, is near the China’s biggest city Shanghai which is under a weeks-long lockdown as part of the ruling party’s zero-tolerance approach to the virus.
Hangzhou had finished the construction of about 56 competition venues for the Asian Games and the Asian Para Games, organizers said last month.
They had indicated towards plans to hold events under a virus control plan, taking a page out of the successful experience of conducting the Beijing Winter Olympics held in February in a Covid-19 secure bubble.
