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Covid forces first-ever postponement of Asian Games
No Asian Games in 2022 could mean better focus on world championships for Indian athletes and wrestlers.
In a surprising development, the Asian Games, scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China, from September 10-25, was postponed on Friday. The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said the decision was taken “after carefully considering the pandemic situation and the size of the Games.” OCA has not said whether the Games will happen anytime this year or be pushed to 2023.
This is the second big postponement of multi-discipline Games due to Covid-19 after the Tokyo Olympics was deferred by a year and held in 2021. This is the first time ever that an Asian Games has been postponed since its inaugural edition in New Delhi in 1951.
China has been battling to contain a spike in Covid cases and pressing ahead with its ‘zero-Covid policy’. Shanghai, located 175km from Hangzhou, is going through one of the strictest lockdowns since the first week of April and reported nearly 5000 new cases on Wednesday.
The OCA Executive Board took the call at a meeting in Tashkent on Friday. “Following detailed discussions with the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) and the Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (HAGOC), the OCA Executive Board (EB) decided to postpone the 19th Asian Games. The new dates will be agreed between the OCA, the COC and the HAGOC and announced in the near future,” OCA said in a statement.
It said the HAGOC was very “well prepared to deliver the Games on time despite global challenges.” OCA also cancelled the Asian Youth Games, scheduled in Shantou, China, from December 20-28. It will be now held in Tashkent in 2025.
Last February, China had successfully conducted the Winter Olympics in Beijing, enforcing strict Covid-19 counter-measures in a “closed-loop” system, similar to Tokyo’s that saw Japan deliver a successful summer Olympics in 2021.
A closed-loop is an attempt to create a virus-free bio-bubble with venues, hotels, media centres sealed off by wire fences and security guards. To create a closed loop, all those connected to the Games would need to show two negative tests before travelling and after arrival, mandatorily log health details including temperature daily in an app. Any one registering a temperature is isolated and would need to test negative before being allowed back in the bubble.
The Winter Games, however, is a much smaller event with around 2900 athletes taking part. As many as 11,000 athletes take part in the Asian Games in 61 disciplines.
News of the postponement has brought some relief to the Indian athletes who would have competed at the Asian Games, just a month after the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (July 28-August 8). Disciplines like track and field and wrestling also have their world championships this year, postponed from 2021. Also, the Paris Olympics qualification events will be in full swing from early next year.
But the uncertainty over Asian Games could also skew their preparations. “It will be difficult to plan the calendar for athletes with no clarity on the Games,” said Indian Olympic Association president Narinder Batra. “OCA should have done a better job and not keep it blindly open,” Batra added. “Even if they had to postpone, at least tell us whether it will happen this year or next year. When the Tokyo Organising Committee had taken the decision to postpone the Games, they said it was being postponed for a year. They had consulted all stakeholders–NOCs, international federations–beforehand.”
Batra called it a “big chaos” and said NOCs were not asked for suggestions on the postponement. “Nobody spoke to us. The information I had 15 days back is that it is happening. All of a sudden we get to know this. OCA should have taken a decision that is practical and beneficial to all. There are 40 sports in Asian Games and every sport has different international tournaments, world championships, and the Paris Olympics qualifiers. They have to plan their peak. They won’t know what to do and how to prepare. How will the federations plan their calendar?”
Hockey, for example, has one berth reserved for the Asian Games gold medal team for the 2024 Paris Olympics. India, therefore, were focused on Asian Games and looking to send a second team to Birmingham. The FIH men’s World Cup is also scheduled in Bhubaneswar from January 13-29.
India’s track and field athletes would get some breathing space as they had a huge workload with three major events in two months: the world championships in Oregon (July-15-24), CWG and Asian Games. Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra was looking to compete in all three. “There were too many events this year and athletes cannot peak so many times,” said AFI president Adille Sumariwalla.
In boxing, the IBA women’s world championships will start next week, besides the two Games. “It will be good if the postponement is not too long,” said India’s high performance director Santiago Nieva. “Paris Olympics qualification will start next year. If the Asian Games are over by then, it will be good.”
Wrestling’s Olympic medallists Ravi Dahiya and Bajrang Punia were to skip the worlds in Belgrade (Sept.10-18) because it clashed with Asian Games. The Wrestling Federation of India had announced selection trials for all three big events next week. The second-choice wrestlers would have competed at the worlds. “We are waiting for clarity,” said WFI assistant-secretary Vinod Tomar. “We can now send our top team to CWG and the worlds.”
