Dozens of athletics events have been canceled worldwide in recent weeks - now also the European Championships in Paris planned for the end of August. No surprise.
Paris (dpa) - The European Athletics Championships planned for the last week of August 2020 in Paris have been canceled due to the corona pandemic. As the continental association European Athletics further announced, the decision was made due to "an unprecedented health crisis".
The risks associated with the pandemic are "far from being under control". That is why people's health and the fight against the pandemic have absolute priority and are "before any other consideration". A possible new EM date was not mentioned in the statement.
The cancellation is anything but surprising. Dozens of events had been rescheduled or canceled worldwide in the past few weeks - athletics is also faced with a delicate calendar puzzle: World, European, national events and competition series have to be reconciled and brought under one roof. In addition, there are mega events such as the Olympics (now summer 2021 in Tokyo) and the European football championships (now in June / July 2021 in several countries).
At the end of March, EA had already asked the organizers in the French capital to carry out a feasibility study for "alternative scenarios". These should also include a possible postponement of the EM. The European Indoor Championships are to be held in Torun, Poland, from March 5 to 7, 2021.
The World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, planned for August 2021, have also recently been postponed by almost a year: They are now scheduled to take place from July 15 to 24, 2022. Due to the corona virus, the World Athletics Association had already postponed the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China by one year at the end of January. The title bouts scheduled for March 13-15, 2020 are now to take place from March 19-21, 2021.
In the Diamond League - the premium product of World Athletics after the World Cup - the first nine meetings have already been canceled by the end of June, most recently the events in Eugene / USA (June 7), Oslo (June 11) and Paris ( June 13). The next stop would be in London on July 4th.
The German Athletics Association had recently canceled the national championships in all age groups and areas until July 19. Among them are the title fights of the active, which for 6./7. June in Braunschweig and were already postponed to an unknown date. The weekend 8/9 is currently targeted. August - if necessary also as ghost championships.
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