BAHRAIN was yesterday announced as the new host of the Asian Youth Games 2025.
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) revealed that the kingdom will be staging the multi-sport event following the withdrawal of original host Uzbekistan.
This was confirmed in an online meeting of the OCA executive board, during which they discussed a letter sent to the OCA by the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Uzbekistan, which stated that they were unable to host the event as scheduled in September of next year.
The reason for this was that the construction of the Olympic City in their capital city of Tashkent would not be completed on time.
OCA director general Husain Al Musallam further noted that next year’s Asian Youth Games is linked to the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal in 2026, regarding age restrictions and qualification, so the event could not be postponed.
The OCA executive board thus approved unanimously that the Asian Youth Games 2025 would be relocated to Bahrain. They thanked Uzbekistan’s NOC for their investment and stated that they would be able to host other major events in the future.
The Asian Youth Games is highly regarded as the second-largest continental multi-sport meeting after only the Asian Games. Next year’s edition is scheduled to be held from September 10 to 25. It is unclear if this will be changed, with further details of the kingdom’s hosting to be announced in due course.
The Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) confirmed the development yesterday with a post on its official Instagram account.
According to the OCA, the BOC said they are ready to host the event in 2025 in terms of sports venues, accommodation, and medical services.
The OCA further noted that BOC secretary general Faris Al Kooheji highlighted that the Asian Youth Games would have the full support of the kingdom’s leadership, in particular from Supreme Council for Youth and Sport first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and BOC president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
It was also expressed during the online meeting that Bahrain had successfully hosted the ISF Gymnasiade Bahrain 2024 last October. The event, held in cooperation with the International School Sport Federation (ISF), featured more than 5,000 participants, including 4,000 athletes, from more than 80 countries.
Next year’s Asian Youth Games will be the third edition of the competition. The first was held in 2009 in Singapore with 43 nations competing in nine sports. The second edition was in Nanjing, China in 2013 with 45 countries participating in 16 sports.
Succeeding editions in 2017 and 2021 were cancelled, and the stage is now set for the event to be held in Bahrain.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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