The outbreak of novel Coronavirus has crippled the sporting world. Countries are cancelling or postponing all the international and national competitions as a precautionary measure against the pandemic. Italy announced Monday that it has suspended all sports in the country. Iran, Turkey and Hungary have also followed suit. The three nations have called off all the national camps and competitions in the wake of COVID-19.
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The decision will impact the Olympic preparations of athletes across the world. With no cure found yet, uncertainty over Tokyo Games looms at large.
The Italian Olympic Committee on Monday announced that it has decided to suspend all sport in the country until April 3 to curtail the global pandemic widespread.
“All sports activities at all levels are suspended until April 3,” the Italian Olympic Committee said in a statement quoted by CNN.
The Italian government had previously mandated that all professional competitions be carried behind closed doors. The decision had brought a lot of backlash from fans.
More than 5,800 cases have been confirmed in Italy – the most in Europe, according to the World Health Organization’s statistics.
The Iranian government on Thursday decided to cancel all the sports events due to COVID-19 widespread across the country.
All the sporting events have been cancelled until March 20, Sports Medicine News Agency of Iran reported. The authority has decided to close all the private sports clubs and complexes until April 5.
The death toll in Iran has reached over 90 according to WHO and Iranian Health Ministry report.
Turkey also cancelled all the sports events due to the pandemic. The Turkey media has reported that all the sporting events scheduled for April and May this year.
The country is also considering to hold all the football games. All the cancellation of Olympic events and other tournaments will prove detrimental for the athletes who are eyeing Tokyo Olympic berth.
United World Wrestling (UWW) has postponed the European Olympic Qualifiers and World Qualifiers. The European Qualifiers were scheduled for March 19-22 in Budapest while the World Qualifiers were to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria from April 30 to May 3.
The event has now been rescheduled. While European qualification tournament expected to be hosted in mid-May while the World Qualifiers at the beginning of June.
“We are closely monitoring the governmental response to COVID-19 and will continue to provide updates to our wrestlers, coaches, and fans with more information as it becomes available,” said United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic.
Earlier, UWW also cancelled the African and Asian Qualifiers due to the menace of Coronavirus. Now, only the Pan-American Qualifiers will be held from March 13-15 in Ottawa, Canada.
