Hangzhou Asian Games

All Systems Go For 19th Asian Games

After three years of pandemic problems from 2020 through to 2022, the Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (HAGOC) is ready for lift-off.

As the new year began – an Asian Games year following the postponement in 2022 – all the signs were pointing to a back-to-business build-up for HAGOC, OCA, National Olympic Committees and the Asian and International Federations involved in the 19th Asiad from September 23 to October 8.

HAGOC officials informed the NOCs at the Olympic Solidarity/OCA regional forums in Riyadh last December that they were confident of a “truly open” Asian Games now that restrictions had been lifted and life was returning to normal across China.

The first sign of this was that the OCA Coordination Committee will visit Hangzhou for the first time since 2019, with the schedule fixed for March 15-16. This will involve a venue tour on the first day, Wednesday, followed by the meeting on the Thursday.

In other news, HAGOC informed the OCA that NOCs can visit Hangzhou from February 15 to April 10, and that the Chef de

Mission Seminar would be held in the last week of April. HAGOC said the NOCs would receive the CDM Manual in good time for the seminar.

In a circular dated January 29, the OCA Acting President Raja Randhir Singh assured the NOCs: “Preparations are in full swing for the successful organisation of the Asian Games in Hangzhou.”