The 19th Asian Games begins today

The 19th Asian Games is scheduled to begin today (23) in Hangzhou, China.

The opening ceremony will be held today at the Hangzhou Olympic Stadium.

The 19th Asian Games was scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China last year, but the organizers decided to postpone the Games to this year due to the spread of the Covid virus in several parts of the country.

This is the third time that China will host an Asian Games.

The opening ceremony is scheduled to be held today at the main stadium of the Games, the Hangzhou Olympic Stadium, and the closing ceremony is also scheduled to be held at the same stadium that can seat 80,000 spectators.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will be the chief guest at today’s opening ceremony at the Hangzhou Olympic Stadium, also known as the ‘Big Lotus’.

More than 12,500 athletes representing 45 countries are scheduled to participate in this year’s Asian Games.

Nearly a hundred sportspersons are going to participate representing Sri Lanka, and they will compete in 21 games.

Athlete Gayantika Abeyratne has been assigned the responsibility of hoisting the national flag at the opening ceremony of this year’s Asian Games.

The Asian Games, which is the biggest sports event after the Olympic Games, will be held for 16 days from today, and competitions are scheduled to be held at 54 venues.

Meanwhile, the final preliminary rounds of the Asian Games Women’s Cricket Tournament will be held tomorrow (23).

The first match is going to be played between India women’s team and Bangladesh women’s team.

The second match between the Sri Lanka women’s team and the Pakistan women’s team is scheduled to start at 11.30 am local time tomorrow.

The winning teams from these two matches will qualify for the finals of the Women’s Cricket Tournament at the Asian Games.

The match is scheduled to be held on the 25th.