Beijing happy with changed Olympic dates |
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Beijing: Beijing, the host city of 2008 Summer Olympics, has welcomed the decision of International Olympic Committee to postpone the Games by two weeks but said they would have preferred if their original request of shifting it by three weeks had been accepted. Vice president of Beijing Olympic Games Organising Committee Wang Wei said he was happy with the IOC's decision "but from our point of view it would be much better if the Games could be postponed by one more week". The Games was originally scheduled to run from July 25 to August 10 but Beijing had expressed concern to the heat during that period and said it would not help athletes perform to their best. The IOC executive board reassessed the dates and agreed yesterday to reschedule the games from August 8 to 24. The IOC's's executive director for Olympic Games Gilbert Felli said the original dates had been set by the IOC to avoid conflicts in the world sports' crowded calendar. "It was the first time in the bidding process that we had proposed dates for the Games," said Felli. He said Beijing had asked the IOC to reconsider the dates when the city was still bidding for the Games. "In the bidding process, the Chinese had already said in the bid book that the dates were not the best for them due to weather conditions." "Now (with the changed dates) the conditions will be much better in terms of heat and humidity," he said.
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