KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – The 2022 Asian Games in China will go ahead, the Olympic Council of Malaysia said yesterday, denying claims that it was facing the possibility of being postponed.
The event is scheduled to be held in September in Hangzhou, a major metropolitan area less than 200 kilometres southwest of Shanghai.
Shanghai is currently grappling with a major coronavirus emergency, with its roughly 25 million residents currently in a weeks-long lockdown as authorities try to curb an Omicron-fuelled wave.
An official working with governing body the Olympic Council of Asia, who did not want to be named, had told AFP on Thursday that no decision had been made but there was a possibility of postponement.
However, Olympic Council of Malaysia president Norza Zakaria disputed that.
“The Asian Games 2022 in China is going ahead,” he told AFP yesterday. “We have checked with OCA (the Olympic Council of Asia) and the organising committee.”
