Taipei, July 24 (CNA) The International Skating Union (ISU) said Wednesday that Taiwan's skating union has agreed to give up the right to host an international figure skating event it was originally scheduled to host in late October.
The statement was contrary to an accusation made by the Taiwanese union a day earlier, which claimed it had no knowledge of the decision until Monday.
Taiwan was originally set to host the 2019 Asian Open Figure Skating Classic Oct. 30-Nov. 3 at the Taipei Arena.
However, the Chinese Taipei Skating Union (CTSU) announced late Tuesday that it had received an emergency notification from the ISU the day before indicating that its right to host the event had been revoked.
The ISU letter said that the decision was made at a recent meeting but did not provide any further explanation, the CTSU said. The Hong Kong Skating Union will now host the competition in Dongguan, in China's Guangdong Province, the letter said.
The ISU said in a statement Wednesday that its council originally agreed in March to let Taipei host the event "mostly due to more suitable dates."
"However, at the end of May, the ISU received indications from several ISU Asian Member Federations, including the Chinese Taipei Skating Union, that it would be preferable to host the event in another Asian country," according to the statement posted on the ISU website.
To solve the problem, the ISU said it then sought a new host among interested Asian members.
"As a result, and with the specific agreement of the Chinese Taipei Skating Union, it was finally decided that this Challenger Series event will be hosted by the Hong Kong Skating Union Ltd. in Dongguan Oct. 30-Nov. 3," it added.
Hong Kong was the only competitor to Taiwan seeking to host the event in the first place, according to the ISU.
(By Long Po-an and Joseph Yeh)
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