HANGZHOU: The Asian Games 2022, due to be held in Hangzhou, China in September, have been postponed to 2023 due to rising COVID-19 cases in the country, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced on Friday.

The Olympic Council of Asia, the governing body for the Asian Games, said it will announce the new dates for the 19th edition of the Games. The Asian Games 2022 were originally scheduled from September 10 to 25.

“The Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee has been very well prepared to deliver the Games on time despite global challenges. However, the above decision was taken by all the stakeholders after carefully considering the pandemic situation and the size of the Games,” the OCA said in a statement.

The host city of Hangzhou is less than 200km away from Shanghai, which is currently fighting another major COVID-19 outbreak and has strict restrictions in place, including weeks-long lockdown.

The organizers had confirmed that the construction of all venues and facilities for the Games had been completed in April.

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics were held in February in a strict bio-bubble to keep COVID at bay.

The OCA also announced on Friday that the third edition of the Asian Youth Games, scheduled to be held in Shantou in December, have been cancelled.

China is also set to host the World University Games in Chengdu from June 26 to July 7.

(Olympics.com)