A general assembly of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has approved here on Sunday that China's coastal heaven of Sanya to host the 6th Asian Beach Games in 2020 and the 2026 Asian Games, cohosted by Japan's Aichi prefecture and Nagoya city, will be held in the autumn to avoid summer heat.
The Sanya Games are expected to be held from late November to early December with 17 sports, such as beach football, beach athletics, martial art, dragon boat racing and triathlon, according to the assembly.
The 2026 Asian Games will be held from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4, 2026. According to the cohosts, they hope to stage the multi-sport event in the autumn to avoid the scorching summer heat and allow the athletes to give better performances while attracting more spectators.
It will be the third time for the Asian Games to be held in Japan, following the 1958 Games in Tokyo and the 1994 Games in Hiroshima.
For Sanya, though still new to the Asian Beach Games, is a famous tourist destination in China's southernmost island province of Hainan and has rich experience in hosting international sports events.
Nicknamed "China's Florida" due to its tropical climate, the city also serves as the training base of the Chinese national beach volleyball team. It is the only applicant to host the sixth edition of the continental event.
"We are confident to deliver a successful and incredible event, which will later prove to be a precious legacy for our city and for the region, definitely beyond sports," said Xu Zhenling, vice mayor of Sanya, when giving a presentation at the 37th OCA General Assembly.
Citing Sanya's privileges of ideal beaches for competition, infrastructures in place, rich experiences of hosting international sport events, efficient transportation and high-quality accommodation, Xu also pledged to have staff and volunteers properly trained, especially on their foreign language skills to make sure athletes and visitors free from language barriers.
"We would like to show the world a green and energetic city with great hospitality and sports spirit and we are expected to see all the athletes achieve their personal best in Sanya," she said.
The Asian Beach Games was inaugurated in Bali in Indonesia in 2008, and was followed by competitions in Muscat in Oman in 2010, Haiyang in China in 2012, Phuket in Thailand in 2014 and Danang in Vietnam in 2016.
The event then switched from a two to a four-year cycle to avoid the "large number of multi-sport games in the calendar" following an OCA decision in 2016.
The assembly has also called for a report by the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (HAGOC) on its preparation for the 19th edition of Asiad in 2022, in which the host briefed their progress, highlighted by the design of "Tides Surging" chosen as emblem of the Games and 34 sports so far confirmed for the Games to be held in the capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.
Xu Jianfeng, deputy director of the HAGOC international relations department, the speech maker, also noted progress on team building and infrastructure construction.
"Hangzhou will speed up the construction of urban infrastructure and strive for ecological excellence," he said. "With three metro lines already operational, the other seven metro lines and two inter-city railways will be completed by 2022."
Progress has also been seen on two Olympic Games to be held in Asia in the coming future.
Pan Zhiwei, deputy director general of Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, was also invited to give a presentation on preparation for the Games scheduled to be held in February, 2022.
The construction of new venues and highways and high-speed railways between three competition clusters Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou goes on well, while on marketing, eight Chinese companies have signed up for official partners for the Games, said Pan.
On the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2022, Toru Kobayashi, head in charge of coordinating with foreign delegations of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, said session competition schedules were released and 42 competition venues were finalized.
Kobayashi noted that two satellite Olympic villages, one for cycling and the other for sailing, have to be built because that the competition venues are far away from the main Olympic village in Tokyo Bay.
The cycling village is 160 km away from the main village, while the one for sailing is closer, 70 km. However, Kobayashi promised that transportation to the satellite villages would not be a problem.
