Beijing spikes beach volleyball from Tiananmen
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-17 19:33

Volleyballs, sand and bikinis will not appear on Tiananmen Square at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, despite the Chinese capital's pitch to hold beach volleyball events at the political heart of the city.

Beijing Olympic organisers proposed beach volleyball on the square while bidding for the Games in 2000, but later changed their minds.

No official announcement on the venue has been made, but a source from the organising committee told Reuters by telephone on Tuesday that the matches would be staged at Beijing's Chaoyang Park, a popular picnic and amusement site east of the main Games site, the Olympic Green.

"We think this site is especially suited for the beachvolleyball event," Feng Qihua from the committee's media and communications department said without specifying reasons for the move.

Beijing has scaled back on some of the ambitious plans it presented in bidding to host 2008 Olympics and cut the budgets for venues like the "bird's nest" stadium, which will hold track and field events and the opening and closing ceremonies.

But by 2008, the city still plans to have spent $37 billionfor the Games, including $2 billion on venues, $2 billion in operating costs, $24.2 billion on infrastructure and $7 billion on an environmental clean-up.

Chinese Olympic organisers have also proposed moving the 2008 equestrian competitions to Hong Kong for fear of potential risks of equine diseases in the capital.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has told Beijing to make sure such a move, opposed by the International Equestrian Federation, is necessary and a final decision is expected later this year.