HANGZHOU: After a year’s delay due to Covid-19, the 19th Asian Games officially open on Saturday with hosts China eager to lift a country mired in economic gloom and athletes hoping to lay a marker before next year’s Paris Olympics.
With more than 12,000 athletes from 45 nations competing across a whopping programme of 40 sports, the Games will be China’s first mega-event since last year’s Beijing Winter Olympics, which was held under strict Covid protocols.
Following the scrapping of China’s “zero-Covid”…
