by Alfonz Juck
Coronavirus, photo by Journalist resource
This is the update, by EME News on how the pandemic has affected the sport on 17 May 2020.
VIRUS IMPACT
LONDON (GBR): The British Milers’ Club Virtual 1km Time Trial, scheduled for next weekend, will raise funds for the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund. Named in honour of the the former coach and BBC TV athletics commentator, the fund has supported hundreds of young athletes since it was set up in 1991. European and Commonwealth 1500m bronze medallist Jake Wightman is among the athletes supporting the event, which will run from 22-25 May, Athletics Weekly reports.
LONDON (GBR): Immunology expert Professor Kingston Mills, who ran 2:13 during his marathon career, believes athletics could return soon with some innovation. “Certainly (running) training is a low-risk activity. There’s no question about that…,” he told Athletics Weekly. “But a mass marathon, something like the London Marathon where there are tens of thousands of people congregating together, that’s a huge risk.” He added that staggered-start time trials could be one option. “It might not work on the track so easily, but I think it might work in road races – you could have a system whereby athletes go off at different stages,” he said.
NAIROBI (KEN): The Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya has allocated 17 million shillings ($170,000) in funds to the fight against doping in the build-up to Tokyo 2021. “We have a budget to fight doping in the country and we are winning this war, though it will never go away completely. We have 170,000 dollars for the Olympic program while we had 2.6 million dollars for the Doha World Athletics Championships last year,” chief executive officer Japhter Rugut said, Xinhua reported.
BEIJING (CHN): The Chinese Athletics Association has issued guidelines for the organisation of online running events. As the number of virtual events grows due to restrictions, the federation says low-risk events, such as 5km, 10km and 15km, should be used. It also encourages organisers to provide insurance purchase options. From Xinhua.
ALBA (ITA): European Athletics partner Mondo is back to work following the easing of travel restrictions in Italy. “Fortunately, we had already installed all the Tokyo tracks before the emergency (of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic),” said Mondo vice president Federico Stroppiana. “We still have to supply equipment and perform other associated work, but we will talk about that next year. The priority now is to restart supplying the orders and progressing with the installations especially in Europe, where everything has been stuck for three months.” Informs European Athletics.
KONYA (TUR): The Islamic Solidarity Games (including athletics), due to be staged in August next year in Turkey, have been postponed to avoid clashing with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Turkish city Konya was scheduled to host the event from August 20 to 29 in 2021. The Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation (ISSF) Executive Board therefore made the decision to postpone the event indefinitely. From insidethegames.
