The 2022 Asian Games scheduled to be held in the Chinese city of Hangzhou have been postponed until next year, the Olympic Council of Asia said on Friday.

Iran PressAsia: Chinese state media first reported the news about the 19th edition of the multi-sports event, which is second in size only to the Summer Olympics, quoting a statement from the official Games website.

“The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has announced that the 19th Asian Games, originally scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 10 to 25, 2022, will be postponed,” the statement said.

New dates for the sporting contest “will be announced at a later date,” the statement added. On Friday, the decision to postpone the Games was taken at an OCA executive board meeting in Tashkent.

The OCA said in the statement that the decision to postpone “was taken by all the stakeholders after carefully considering the pandemic situation and the size of the Games.”

Hangzhou organizers said in early April that all 56 competition venues for the Games had been completed, and test events were continuing as the lakeside city prepared to host more than 11,000 athletes from 44 nations and territories.

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