The 19th Asian Games, the largest sporting event in Asia governed by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), will open on Saturday through a spectacular opening ceremony in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, reports BSS.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to grace the opening ceremony of the multi-sport event which will be held at Olympic Sports Centre Stadium.

The athletes from 10 disciplines have already arrived in Hangzhou to take part in the Games.

Grand Master Niaz Morshed and Bangladesh women's football team's Captain Sabina Khatun will carry the Bangladesh flag during the opening ceremony march-past of the biggest ever Asian Games in the history.

The Games will feature nearly 12,000 athletes from 45 nations and territories competing for 481 gold medals. The Games were supposed to take place last September but were postponed because of COVID-19 pandemic. China is hosting the Asian Games for the third time after 1990 in Beijing and in 2010 in Guangzhou.

The Games will be staged at 54 venues-- 14 newly constructed mostly in Hangzhou-- but also extending to the cities as far field as Wenzhou, 300 kilometres (180 miles) south. The stadium, with a capacity of up to 80,000, where athletics and the opening and closing ceremonies will be staged.

Bangladesh Olympic Association's (BOA) Secretary General Syed Shahed Reza, who is now staying in Hangzhou, expressed his high optimism for the athletes' positive result in the Games.

He hoped that the athletes of Bangladesh would bring good result from archery and shooting disciplines in the games.

The BOA secretary general also expressed his high optimism with the two expatriate athletes -- female boxer Zeenat Ferdous and England-based Bangladeshi sprinter Imranur Rahman-- by saying that there is also scope for getting good result in boxing and athletics events as well.

Bangladesh is participating in 17 disciplines in the Games. The disciplines are archery ( men's and women's), athletics (men's and women's), boxing (men's and women's), cricket( men's and women's), football ( man's and women's), bridge (men's), Gold ( men's and women's), hockey (men's), kabaddi (men's and women's), shooting( men's and women's), swimming( men's and women's), weightlifting (men's), gymnastics (men's) karate (men's and women's), chess, fencing and taekwondo.

Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan