Nanjing of China to host 2nd Asian Youth Games in 2013

Nanjing of China has won the right to host the 2nd Asian Youth Games in 2013, allergy the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced.

Also at the OCA general assembly held here on Saturday, price Phuket of Thailand was picked to stage the 4th Asian Beach Games in 2014 and Nha Trang of Vietnam was chosen as the venue for the 5th Asian Beach Games in 2016.

OCA President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah signed host city contracts with representative of the three cities.

Nanjing will host the 2nd Youth Olympic Games in 2014, following the inaugural event in Singapore in August, so the 2nd Asian Youth Games one year earlier will give organizers the chance to test the venues and the cultural events program.

The Asian Beach Games began in Bali, Indonesia, in 2008 and is proving very attractive for National Olympic Committees due to its low cost of hosting in terms of venue construction and opportunities to promote tourism within Asia and beyond.

The 2nd Asian Beach Games will be held next month in Oman, from December 8-16, and the 3rd edition will be at Haiyang, Shandong Province, China, in June 2012.

The host of the 2013 Asian Indoor/Martial Arts Games has still to be decided. Incheon, Bahrain and Kaohsiung are all interested in staging the event, which combines two previous Games – the Asian Martial Arts Games and Asian Indoor Games.