by RBR Admin
Coronovirus photo by Journalist Resource
This is the daily update on the coronavirus and how it is making a total mess of our sport in 2020. The truth is, we must do this to keep those we know and love healthy. This is no joke. Cancellations are a small price to pay to keep the death toll frrom COVID-19 down. This is the biggest epedmic we have had in world since 1919, when 30 million died around the world.
VIRUS IMPACT
INDIANAPOLIS (USA): USA Track & Field is the latest national governing body to advocate for the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics scheduled to begin on Friday, July 24. In a letter made public USATF CEO Max Siegel implored Sarah Hirshland, the CEO of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), to seek a delay in the Games due to the coronavirus pandemic. Siegel then asked for a postponement of the Games, but did not specify a time frame.
PARIS (FRA): André Giraud, president of the French athletics federation, has urged the IOC to cancel this year’s Olympics. “It seems to me, like many presidents of federations, unthinkable to be able to hold these Games on the scheduled dates… Reason must prevail. The priority must be the health of everyone, especially that of athletes.” From L’Equipe.
ATHENS (GRE): Serbia and Croatia with Brazil have joined other countries in calling for the 2020 Olympics to be delayed. “Japan has invested a lot of resources into the Olympics and they are adamant that the Games should go ahead, but that defies common sense and we cannot support it because human lives come first,” Serbian Olympic Committee president Vanja Udovicic told Reuters. Meanwhile, Croatia’s Olympic Committee president, Zlatko Matesa, said: “Sports is not an issue now as competing has become impossible. I believe it is impossible for the Games to go ahead as scheduled and in my opinion they should and will be postponed for a few months. It won’t be a dramatic delay.”
COLORADO SPRINGS (USA): Travis Tygart, the head of the US Anti-Doping Association says the Olympics should be cancelled as drugs-testing in the build-up will be sub-par, ZDF reports. From Leichtathletik.de.
ROME (ITA): President of the Italian federation, Alfio Giomi, released a statement giving hope to the country which has the world’s highest rate of deaths from coronavirus. “Together we can do it,” he concluded.
MONTREAL (CAN): The World Anti-Doping Agency has updated its guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic. Included is that anti-doping organisations should continue to collect whereabouts information and advanced sanitation processes. From Xinhua.
SAPPORO (JPN): Hokkaido has lifted its state of emergency over the coronavirus after three weeks, as Sapporo continues preparations to host Olympic marathon and race walks. The state of emergency was declared on February 28, amid mounting fears related to the coronavirus in Japan. Sapporo is the largest city in Hokkaido. From insidethegames.
BERLIN (GER): The former President of the German Athletics Association, Clemens Prokop, has called International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach “unsuitable at crisis management” and criticised his decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prokop, who was head of German athletics for 16 years, said that Bach and his team are not doing enough. “I consider Thomas Bach unsuitable at crisis management because he does not make the necessary decisions,” Prokop said in an interview with Stuttgarter Zeitung.
STANFORD (USA): The most important athletics meeting in the United States dedicated to distance running, the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford University, has been cancelled. The event, scheduled for Friday, May 8, was part of the overall cancellation of spring sporting events at Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif., due to the coronavirus outbreak.
STOCKHOLM (SWE): In Sweden almost all sports on the top level has stopped or taken a break. Handball, basketball and ice hockey has ended the season, meanwhile the final at national level for bandy on ice is taking place this weekend, but with no fans at the stands. The government of Sweden has decided to give the sports movement 50 millions Euro for the economical lack of income as following with the corona crisis.
DES MOINES (USA): Drake Relays director Blake Boldon hasn’t given up hope that the 111th edition of one of track and field’s most respected events will take place someday this calendar year. “We have every intention for the Drake Relays presented by Xtream and powered by Mediacom to take place in 2020,” Boldon said. Informs the register.
MADRID (ESP): Spanish Athletics Federation issued a statement saying among other: “In the current circumstances we consider that the minimum conditions do not exist to be able to adequately prepare the great Olympic event for which our athletes have worked for so many years. All this situation causes athletes and coaches to be under tremendous pressure, which not only does not favor their performance, but is generating a state of worry and anxiety that affects them physically, mentally and emotionally. Nothing gives you more feeling of frustration than seeing how all your sports plans, goals and dreams are up in the air right now. Royal Spanish Athletics Federation advocates for the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
TOKYO (JPN): Tadamasa Fukiura, an advisor for the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, says he believes a decision must be made by the end of the month over whether the Games will take place this summer. Fukiura, a flag enthusiast who supervised displays at the last Tokyo Games in 1964, has felt the threat of potential cancellation before when heavy rain ravaged the city over 50 years ago. However, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said that the future of the Games this year must be confirmed within the next couple of weeks.
