Kuwait City, Kuwait, August 30, 2023: The Olympic Council of Asia held an online workshop in conjunction with the Asian Electronic Sports Federation on Wednesday to prepare the esports athletes and officials for the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China next month.
The workshop covered several important Asian Games topics such as the prevention of competition manipulation, the election for the OCA Athletes’ Committee, social media guidelines and anti-doping procedures.
Esports will be making its official debut as an Asian Games sport in Hangzhou and will offer gold medals in seven game titles.
It was a demonstration sport at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta/Palembang in 2018 but now has official medal status, and has been retained on the sports programme for the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan in 2026.
The workshop was conducted to give the esports community an insight into the workings and requirements of taking part in a major international multi-sport event representing the National Olympic Committee of each country or region.
Dr Venera Abdulla, a member of the OCA Anti-Doping department, introduced various aspects of anti-doping, including the WADA Anti-Doping Education and Learning (ADEL) module, Therapeutic Use Exemption and the procedure for testing during the Asian Games.
For the first time, all athletes in the Asian Games must have anti-doping certification before taking part, and Dr Venera explained the registration system to gain this certification.
The 19th Asian Games will run from September 23 to October 8 in Hangzhou and five co-host cities throughout Zhejiang province.
Esports will take place in the new China Hangzhou Esports Centre, and the OCA’s Director of Media and Broadcast, Jeans Zhou Jian, said esports tickets were the hottest in town of all 61 disciplines, according to the organisers.
