China says Asian Games venues are complete – Sports

Venues for the Asian Games were completed six months before the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou will welcome athletes from across the region, organizers said on Friday.

The competition, the 19th edition of the hard-fought regional sporting event, continues despite China grappling with its worst COVID-19 outbreak since the pandemic began.

Organizers say a virus plan that “learns from the successful experience” of the Beijing Winter Olympics held in February will be released in the coming weeks.

All 56 competition venues for the Asian Games and Asian Para Games have been completed, organizers added in a statement.

“Functional checks for the events have been completed,” the statement said, adding that several Games villages and more than 30 training venues have also been constructed.

“We are just making some final adjustments and improvements to the facilities,” Lu Chunjiang, operations manager at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center, told state broadcaster. CCTV.

“Most of our energy is devoted to the preparatory work for the exploitation of the sites.”

Hangzhou, the capital of eastern China’s Zhejiang Province, will host the 19th Asian Games from September 10 to 25.

The city of 12 million will become the third in China to host the continental athletics competition after Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.

Some events will be held in other provincial cities, including Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing and Jinhua.

Hangzhou is less than 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Shanghai, where an outbreak fueled by Omicron in recent weeks has triggered partial shutdowns, panic buying and transport chaos.

Organizers have provided few details on how they intend to stage the Games if China’s strict zero COVID policy remains unchanged.

But there are signs they could emulate February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing, where a COVID-secured bubble known as a “closed loop” has completely isolated participants from the general population.

Attendees at a Para Games meeting this week also ‘explained in detail’ disease control policies, including ‘vaccination, remote prevention, health monitoring and closed-loop management,’ according to a statement. separate.