19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2023

[sameerph]

Avani Prashanth does appear to be a real talent. Great that she got into our senior womens golf team in Asiad at 15. Mens team does look quite strong. I guess best chance is for team medal in mens.

Of course anything can happen in a day say if Anirban can do as well he did recently or Aditi does as well as she did at Tokyo olympics.

[prajgolf]

Asian Games 2022 postponed

[rajitghosh]

Puts hockey Olympics qualification in jeopardy.

[sameerph]

Puts hockey Olympics qualification in jeopardy.

Why ? Instead of this year qualification will be decided next year.

[srini]

I understand Guangzhou has been a single bidder, but OCA should have explored if any city was willing to host at short notice instead of unilaterally rescheduling just because Covid continues to be a problem in China. I'm sure China will soon be seeing a drop in athletes performance due to lack of exposure to external competition if it continues with these self imposed isolation from rest of world. With sporting powers China and Russia out of most of Olympic qualification cycle due to either being either banned or self imposed isolation, rest of the nations can see a rise in qualification numbers.

[sameerph]

I do not think China or Chinese players are going to miss Olympic qualification tournaments.

[sameerph]

New dates announced for Asian games- September 23 to October 8, 2023. In a way it is good that this will be held a year before olympics. Our athletes will know better where they stand.

[srini]

Seems Russia after being barred from European qualifiers was asked to participate in Asian games and qualify their athletes. If Russian athletes are going to grab some quota places (there will be bulk of them going as Russia still has firepower in sports)then how is it OK to have them participate without increasing the original number of quota places? Also how can European nations be unilaterally blocking Russia without taking any hint of cut in its original quota places??

If Russian wrestlers. boxers etc participate we can be sure our chances of qualification in big numbers will be reduced.

[arjun2761]

This should be a hard NO from the Asian Games federation. The Russians should not be taking any Asian games quota places.

[prasen9]

Exactly. Or let them participate, I do not mind them taking some medals. But, the quota places Russians take should be added to the Asian Games quotas. (Basically, saying the same thing.)

What is in it for the Asian Games folks? Why would wrestling and gymnastics invite Russia? I can see longer term having more and top nations improves the games and so one would do that. But, these sports administrators are political beings.

On another matter, the SAF Games has invited Russia to the football championships in Dhaka it seems. Hmm. Russia is quite some ways off of South Asia but hey, we can see what happens. If I were a Bangladeshi, I would not mind seeing some quality Russian football players.

[Mugundan]

What arrangement OCA would have is unclear from this report in January. It looks they are serious. How they would provide a qualification slots to Russia and Belarus and how they would protect the Asian quota is not explained. Some mockery:
https://indianexpress.com/article/sport ... h-8410062/

[sameerph]

We will be participating in all sports in this Asiad except one- Cricket.

No Indian participation in cricket at Asiad while sport pushes for Olympic inclusion

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has cited prior commitments as the reason for not entering the men’s or women’s teams for the continental mega event. “We have entries in all sports except one – cricket (team) isn’t going,” India’s chef de mission for the Asian Games, Bhupender Bajwa, told The Indian Express. “They said they are preoccupied. We sent 3-4 emails to them but when we had to send entries to the organisers, they said they won’t go.”
A cricket board official confirmed the development but added that they received the email from the Indian Olympic Association just ‘one day before the deadline’. “We had received the mail from IOA just one day before the deadline. At the same time, the BCCI already has finalised the FTP for women’s cricket. During the Asian Games, our team won’t be available as they will be playing in a tournament,” the BCCI official said.

[Atithee]

Why can’t they send a second team? India has enough depth to field even three strong teams. In fact they play India red green etc. and also have India A team that hardly tours now. And it’s not like we have been winning trophies. We couldn’t even win the Asia Cup recently. So, what’s this fake bravado about?

No one can challenge this decision? How does BCCI get to represent India? Who decides who can represent a country in official matters?

[sameerph]

Right, it is finally government ( sports ministry) which should decide which teams to send to these big events, Why should BCCI decide ?

Also, why can't they at least send a womens team. It is not a very big deal for mens team to win an Asiad gold maybe but for women team who have not won a major international event so far it would be good.

[Saffron Lenin]

Shame on BCCI......ban it and take cricket under government control!!!!!