The Asian Games scheduled for September in the Chinese city of Hongzhou have been postponed indefinitely.
Although the host nation did not explicitly mention the reason for the postponement, China is currently plagued by the Corona epidemic. According to the French news agency AFP, China decided to avoid further risks in January 2019 when more people were found to be infected than in the early days of the epidemic.
The Asian Olympic Council (OCA) has decided to postpone the 19th Asian Games to be held in Hongzhou from September 10 to 25, according to the competition's official website. But before that, China's state-run media, CCTV, broadcast the first notice of the postponement.
Executive Secretary of the Nepal Olympic Committee Sujan Lal Shrestha also said that the committee has been informed about the decision to move the Asian Games. Nepal had decided to participate in 23 games in the Asian Games. According to him, as there is time to register players till the second week of May, all the participating games were selecting the national team.
It is mentioned in the official statement of the organizing body that the new date of the competition will be decided later.
A week-long lockdown has been announced in China's largest city, Shanghai, following a sharp rise in corona infections. The venue of the Asian Games, Hongzhou, is 200 kilometers from Shanghai.
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