Athletes from Australia and the rest of Oceania have been invited to compete at the 2022 Asian Games, Australian Olympic chief John Coates said yesterday, days after the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said such a move was unlikely.
The invite to the Games in China’s Hangzhou is only for selected sports to enable regional athletes to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics through Asian competition, Coates said.
Oceania has not taken part in the regional Olympics before, but sporting ties with Asia have been growing.
Australia has been a member of the Asian Football Confederation since 2006, and Oceania nations are competing at the Asian Indoor Games and Martial Arts Games in Turkmenistan.
Coates, who is also a member of the Association of Oceania National Olympic Committees (NOCs), said the decision on Hangzhou was made by OCA president Sheikh Ahmad al Fahad Al Sabah.
Sheikh Ahmad on Monday said that the number of athletes was capped at 15,000, suggesting that Australia and Oceania would be unable to take part — although exceptions could be made in some team sports.
Coates said that because of the 15,000 maximum, “the numbers from the NOCs of Oceania will be capped at around 300 athletes and 150 support staff.”
“Volleyball, football, basketball and equestrian are among the sports for which Olympic qualification for Australia is likely to be through Asia,” Coates said in a statement.
However, it is unlikely that equestrian will take up the opportunity, because rules generally require horses to be quarantined for up to six months on return from China.
Coates said that international federations were determining their qualification rules for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics “and these will provide a guide as to all of the sports and NOCs for which qualification from Oceania will be through Asia for Paris 2024.”
Meanwhile, Indonesia is to host 40 events at next year’s Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang after reaching a deal with the OCA, the head of Indonesia’s organizing committee said.
With less than a year to go until the Games open in August next year, the final program had been in doubt before an agreement was reached during a meeting on the sidelines of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, taking place in Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat.
Under the agreement, the Games — larger than the Olympics both in terms of the number of sports and competitors — will incorporate 40 sports and 462 gold medal events.
The number is down from the 42 sports that the OCA announced in March, but one more than the 39 that Indonesia’s organizing committee had proposed.
The final program includes all 33 sports that will be staged at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, as well as others that are popular in Asia such as additional martial arts, sepak takraw, kabaddi, jet ski, paragliding and the card game bridge.
Indonesia has been short of preparation time from the outset after agreeing in 2014 to step in when the original hosts, Vietnam, pulled out for cost reasons.
The only previous time Indonesia hosted the Asian Games was in 1962, making next year’s edition by far the biggest sports event ever held in the archipelago.
A series of test events planned for the end of this year have already been pushed back until February next year, but the Indonesian delegation assured the general assembly in a well-received presentation that all the venues and infrastructure would be ready well before the Games commence.
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