[The Public = Daniel Park] In Shanghai, China, where the lockdown began at the end of March, some movement restrictions are being relaxed, but the lockdown itself has not been lifted for more than 40 days.
Shanghai City permits movement within apartment complexes or within districts only in areas where some infections have not occurred in each residential area.
However, the city of Shanghai has maintained a lockdown policy for the entire city since the lockdown of the eastern Pudong area on March 28.
As a result, production disruptions at local companies continue, and the state-run Xinhua News Agency claimed that 70% of the 1,800 selected major companies returned to work.
However, in Shanghai yesterday, there were 3,800 new cases of Corona 19, including asymptomatic ones, which is still a large gap from the so-called 'Zero Corona' targeted by the Chinese authorities.
As the Hangzhou Asian Games, scheduled for September this year, were postponed in the aftermath of the spread of the coronavirus, players and officials preparing to participate in the tournament were inevitably confused. In a situation in which some sports groups have already selected national athletes to participate in the Hangzhou Games, schedules or plans must be completely revised.
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), which hosts the Asian Games, announced on the 6th, "After consultations with the China Olympic Committee (COC), the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (HAGOC), and the OCA Executive Committee, it was decided to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 10 to 25 this year. We have decided to postpone the 19th Summer Asian Games.”
In response, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Sports Council said, "We have been keeping an eye on the possibility of postponement after the report came out."
It is explained that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have already been postponed for one year, so this time, the insiders have been discussing countermeasures with emphasis on the postponement.
The Sports Council is planning to completely re-establish the plan that has been prepared with the goal of dispatching about 1,000 athletes just like the 2018 Asian Games in Palembang, Jakarta. The 4.3 billion won reflected in this year's Asian Games national team dispatch support budget should be postponed to next year.
The Sports Council must also enter into discussions with the sports organizations on the schedule necessary for condition management and training of the representative athletes who were planning to enter the Jincheon Athletes' Village from next month to improve their skills.
In particular, there is a popular opinion in the sports world that athletes, such as wrestling star Kim Hyeon-woo (33), who have focused on the Asian Games as their last competition, need more thorough preparation because of the huge delay in acting. A sports club official said, "The administrative loss is not great as we plan to proceed with player registration and reservations for accommodation and air tickets next month. Athletes and seniors related to military issues will have a greater impact, so we plan to prepare for psychological treatment in parallel.”
Sports organizations for each sport also need to re-arrange their national team selection schedule. In the case of archery, it has already completed the selection of eight nationals last month and tried to continue its performances in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Hangzhou. On the 4th, special training was held in which the men's and women's national teams faced each other at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, ahead of the KIA and Kiwoom professional baseball game. At the time, Kim Je-deok, who won two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, also expressed his will at the time, saying, “I think that the event will be held unconditionally, so I will make up for the shortcomings.”
An official from the Korea Archery Association said, “The national team that was selected again participated in the Tokyo Olympics last year. At the time, some players responded that it was unfair, but they all agreed that the best players should participate in the tournament. It is highly likely that the principle will not change.”
Football teams that can only participate in players under the age of 23 should start working on regulating the age of the players. If the Asian Games is postponed to 2023, it is because it has not yet been decided whether the age limit for men's soccer will also be increased by one year. However, since the age limit was increased by one year at the Tokyo Olympics, there is a possibility that the same standard will be applied again. Hwang Seon-hong, head coach of the national team, said, "I am embarrassed by the sudden news.
The Public / Daniel Park webmaster@thepublic.kr
더퍼블릭 / Daniel Park webmaster@thepublic.kr