By Amlan Chakraborty
NAGOYA, Japan, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Organisers of the next Asian Games in Doha are open to pushing the event back a year to 2031 if the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) decides to make the change, their chief executive said on Thursday.
The OCA is considering holding its flagship multi-sport event a year before each Olympics so that it can also serve as the continent’s Olympic qualifiers.
Ahmad Abdulla Al-Buenain, chief executive of the Doha 2030 Asian Games Organising Committee, told reporters that the OCA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were discussing the matter.
“The main thing is we at the Local Organising Committee need to make sure we will always be ready whatever is needed and all the venues are ready and all the plans are executed,” Al-Buenain said.
“For us, we are open,” he said, adding their primary concern was the hosting element of the Games rather than its timing.
“We are working closely with the IOC and the OCA. This kind of decision always needs to have a lot of stakeholders, and a lot of reasons behind it.”
IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who visited the Aichi-Nagoya Games, has already backed the idea.
“I know that the continental associations are pushing and advocating for their Games to happen a year before the Olympic Games so that they can be used for qualifications for the Olympic Games, which I think is a really wonderful way to strengthen our movement,” Coventry told China’s Xinhua news agency.
“Looking forward to that move by the OCA and Asian Games,” she added.
Al-Buenain said Doha would stage a “compact” Games built around clusters of existing venues. Those venues are a legacy of the many major events Qatar has hosted in recent years, including the 2022 World Cup.
Organisers in Aichi-Nagoya have struggled to house some 17,000 athletes and officials and to run a smooth transport system for them.
Al-Buenain said Doha had no intention of shutting any sport out, though the programme would need to work for all stakeholders.
“We are not trying to take any sport out, or any athlete out, but we need to make sure it’s to the benefit of the OCA, the NOCs (National Olympic Committees) and all the federations that are working on this project.”
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in Nagoya; editing by Alexandra Hudson)
