Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

The Asian Games 2022 have been postponed until 2023 amid the rising COVID-19 cases in China, Azernews reports. The sporting event was slated to take place from September 10 to 25, 2022.

As for now, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced that the Asian Games 2022 will be held in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8, 2023.

China will host the 19th Asian Games for the third time. Chinese capital Beijing hosted the Games in 1990 while Guangzhou hosted the prestigious event in 2010.

The construction of all venues and facilities for the Asian Games 2022 was completed in April.

In 2019, the Olympic Council of Asia initially announced that the games would feature 37 sports, including 28 mandatory Olympic sports to be contested at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, as well as events in other non-Olympic sports.

This led to the addition of events, such as open-water swimming and the groups' competition in rhythmic gymnastics to the Olympic program.

Sports like baseball, softball, karate and sports climbing were also added to the program, expanding it to 61 disciplines in 40 sports.

In 2020, it was announced that e-sports and breakdancing would be added, expanding the program to 42 sports.

The e-sports program at the 2022 Asian Games will include eight medal events and two demonstration events, with competitions being held in Arena of Valor, Dota 2, Dream of the Three Kingdoms 2, FIFA, Hearthstone, League of Legends, PUBG Mobile, and Street Fighter V.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lamiva993