Hangzhou (China), May 17 (IANS): The Hangzhou 2022 Asian Para Games organising committee (HAPGOC) and the Asian Paralympic Committee (APC) on Tuesday announced the postponement of the 2022 Asian Para Games, originally scheduled to take place from October 9-15 this year.

The announcement follows the decision taken by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and the HAGOC, the games organising committee, to postpone the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games due to the size of the Games and the continuing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"A taskforce comprising of the APC, the Chinese Paralympic Committee and HAPGOC will now work on rescheduling the Games to take place in 2023. A further announcement on this is expected in the near future," said a statement from the Asian Paralympic Committee.

The emblem, slogan and year of the Games will remain unchanged.

"The Games preparations have been going very well and HAPGOC was ready to deliver an outstanding games. This was not an easy decision to make but we have taken it now to give a level of certainty to the IFs (international federations), NPCs (national paralympic committees) and athletes who were planning to attend the Games. We will now work with the organising committee on securing a new date that works for the para-sport calendar," said APC president Majid Rashed.