Muscat, Oman, December 17, 2020: Thailand is set to add to its rich hosting legacy when it welcomes the Asian sports family to the Olympic Council of Asia’s 6th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) in Bangkok and Chonburi province next May.
Thailand is one of the OCA’s biggest partners, having staged the showcase Asian Games on four occasions (1966, 1970, 1978 and 1998), the inaugural Asian Indoor Games in 2005, the inaugural Asian Martial Arts Games in 2009 and the Asian Beach Games in Phuket in 2014.
Plans are well in advance for the sixth edition of the combined Indoor and Martial Arts Games, which are due to run from May 21-30 in the Thai capital along with the coastal province of Chonburi.
Organisers updated the OCA’s 45 National Olympic Committees at the 39th OCA General Assembly in Muscat, Oman on December 16 and said they were preparing to stage 31 sports, comprised of 29 medal sports and two demonstration sports.
The 6th AIMAG will take place the following month before the 3rd Asian Youth Games in Shantou, an historic treaty port in Guangdong province, southern China, closes out the year from November 20-28.
Shantou organisers informed the NOCs that the first Sports Entry timeline, Entry by Sport, had commenced on November 22 and that Entry by Number would begin in January. The final timeline, Entry by Name, will open next August, three months before the AYG.
The Chefs de Mission Seminar for NOC team leaders is scheduled for April to provide more details on all aspects of the AYG, which will feature 18 sports, 21 disciplines and 158 events in 20 existing venues and two new venues, which will be completed by the end of June.
The AYG sports programme includes breaking, which is also set to join the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in 2022 ahead of its Olympic Games debut in Paris in 2024.
E-sports is also becoming a full medal sport at Hangzhou 2022 for the first time in Asian Games history after being a demonstration sport at Indonesia in 2018.
The OCA will confirm the age limit for the Shantou AYG and the final sports programme in the near future.
The age limit for the AYG is usually set at one year younger than for the IOC’s Youth Olympic Games which normally take place the following year, but the 2022 YOG in Dakar, Senegal has been postponed to 2026 so the OCA may increase the age limit for Shantou to 18.
The Chairman of the OCA Sports Committee, Song Luzeng of China, told the General Assembly that the preparations for all these Games were well on track and progressing smoothly.
“We appreciate very much the efforts and progress you have made for the Games and your contribution to the development of sport in Asia and the world,” he told the organising committees.
“We wish the smooth sailing of your preparations and the Games a great success.”
