The Yellow Dragon Sports Center Stadium, one of the venues for the 19th Asian Games, can be seen in this aerial photograph obtained on June 14, 2023 in Hangzhou, which is located in the Zhejiang region of eastern China. (Image courtesy of AFP)
The Chinese organizers of the Asian Games stated on Wednesday that although there had been “a lot of difficulties,” the venues for the pandemic-delayed competition were ready with one hundred days to go.
The Games that were supposed to take place in Hangzhou in September 2022 have been pushed back by one year because to the stringent COVID-19 standards that China has implemented.
Asian Games overcome “difficulties” due to COVID-19.
Beijing unexpectedly abandoned its zero COVID-19 policies in December, and the organizing committee vice-chairman Zhou Jinqiang said on Wednesday that “All preparations have entered the sprint stage.”
The Games, which are one of the largest multi-sport events in the world, will start on September 23 and continue for a total of two weeks.
In spite of the fact that the pandemic “brought a lot of difficulties to our venue construction,” the organizing committee official Chen Weidong reported that all 56 competition locations are now ready for use.
According to Chen, in the past it had been impossible for foreign technical employees to enter China, and issues had to be resolved through the use of video chats.
As a result of sudden lockdowns and restrictions on travel during the first three years of the epidemic, practically all international athletic events scheduled to take place in China were postponed or canceled. This caused China’s reputation as a destination for sporting events to suffer severely.
More than 10,000 athletes from over the area participate in the games each time they are held.
Zhou stated that several nations were sending their largest delegations they’ve ever had this year, with China’s squad having more than 900 contestants overall.
Just to the south of Shanghai is the affluent technology center of Hangzhou.