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The outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which as of April 15 has killed more than 128 000 people globally, has affected sporting events across the world.
Major sporting events have been cancelled or postponed.
Football
On April 12, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced the postponement of the two-legged semi-finals of the African Champions League that were supposed to take place in May.
The CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) Nations League Finals, which were scheduled for June 4 to June 7, have been suspended. The finals, due to be contested by Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico and the United States and held in the Houston and Dallas areas of Texas, will be rescheduled for a later date in venues to be determined.
The African Nations Championship 2020 soccer tournament scheduled for April in Cameroon has been postponed indefinitely, the African Football Federation said in a statement on March 17.
The Euro 2020 tournament has been postponed until 2021, European football’s governing body UEFA said in a statement on March 17. UEFA said that the 24-team tournament, which was due to be staged in 12 nations across the continent from June 12 to July 12 this year, would now take place from June 11 to July 11 2021.
In England, all elite football has been suspended until at least April 30.
Marathons
The London Marathon, which was scheduled to take place on April 26, has been postponed until October 4.
The Boston Marathon, originally scheduled for April 4, is now expected to take place on September 14.
Amsterdam, Paris and Barcelona marathons have also been postponed.
In Japan on March 1, the Tokyo Marathon, which usually attracts 300 000 participants, was restricted to only 200 elite runners.
Athletics
The World Athletics Championships scheduled to take place in Oregon in August 2021 have been pushed back to July 2022 to avoid clashing with the rescheduled Olympic Games, the sport’s governing body said on April 8.
The Diamond League postponed its first five meetings of the 2020 season due to be held in April and May in Qatar, China, Stockholm, Naples and Rabat.
World Athletics said in a statement that it “approved the new dates this week after extensive discussions with the sport’s stakeholders.”
The World Athletics Indoor Championships, scheduled for Nanjing from March 13-15, have been postponed until next year.
Formula 1
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix became the latest postponement in the calendar, meaning there will be no Formula One races until the middle of June at the earliest.
The race at the Baku City Circuit was scheduled for June 7.
Formula 1 has cancelled the season-opening Australian GP after a McLaren team member contracted the coronavirus. The race was scheduled to take place on March 15.
The Bahrain Grand Prix and the Vietnam Grand Prix have been postponed. Those events were first scheduled to take place on March 20-22 and April 3-5 respectively.
The Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, which was scheduled to take place on April 19, was also called off.
Races in the Netherlands, Spain and Monaco in May have all been postponed, the governing motorsport body FIA said on March 19.
Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix organisers announced on April 7 that the race in Montreal that was supposed to kick off the 2020 World Championship calendar will be postponed until further notice.
Tennis
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said 900 tournaments across all its circuits had been postponed and that it was furloughing half its staff.
The ITF’s revamped Fed Cup Finals was one of the high-profile events postponed. It was supposed to have taken place this month in Budapest.
The 2020 Wimbledon tennis championships have been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, the All England Club announced on April 1.
Boxing
The world boxing heavyweight title fight between Briton Anthony Joshua and the IBF’s mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev of Bulgaria originally scheduled for June 20 has been postponed, promoters said.
The Tokyo Olympic boxing qualifiers for Asia and Oceania were moved to Jordan from China.
However, the European, American and final world qualifying boxing tournaments for the Olympic Games have been suspended, the International Olympic Committee said.
Briton Anthony Joshua’s world heavyweight title defence against Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev would probably take place at the end of the year instead of June 20 at Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium in London as scheduled. — Aljazeera.
Online Reporter