The 2020 Asian Swimming Championships represent the latest prestigious international event to be postponed on the heels of the Olympic Games’ push to July 2021.
Originally scheduled for November 7th-17th, then tentatively moved to December due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Asian Swimming Championships have now rounded to the corner to take place sometime in 2021. The quadrennial event is still slated to be held in the Philippines at the New Clark City Aquatics Center, site of the 2018 Asian Games’ aquatic events.
Philippine Swimming Inc. (PSI) president Lailani Vlasco said, “The ASF [Asian Swimming Federation] has replied early this week. And they have agreed to postpone it next year.”
The last edition of the Championships in 2016 saw the nation of China easily top the overall national swimming medal table with a total of 49 pieces of hardware. Additional key performers from 4 years ago include Park Tae Hwan of South Korea, who accounted for all four of his nation’s golds, Chinese medalists Xu Jiaju, Fu Yuanhui and Li Bingjie, Japanese stars Rikako Ikee, Daiya Seto and Yui Ohashi.
We reported in April how the Philippines was repurposing facilities used at the 30th SoutheastAsian Games, as care centers for coronavirus (COVID-19) patients.
The New Clark City Sports Complex is outfit with 1500 beds for COVID-19 cases, according to the Philippines’ National Task Force Against COVID-19. The NCC Athletes’ Village has been used as a quarantine facility since February, per ABS.
At time of publishing, Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Center indicates the Philippines have had 11,086 coronavirus cases reported, resulting in 726 deaths.
