Olympic qualifiers moved from virus epicentre in China
BOX I NG a nd women’s f oot ba l l qua l i f y i ng for t he 2020 Oly mpics w i l l be moved f rom t he Chi nese cit y at t he centre of a v irus outbrea k to a not her locat ion in t he count r y, t he or g a n i s i ng bod ie s s a id on Wednesday.
Wu ha n wa s supposed to host China, Ta iwa n, Thai la nd a nd Aust ra lia for t he Group B Asia n women’s footba ll qualif iers Februar y 3-9 a nd t he Asia/Oceania box ing tournament f rom Febr uar y 3-14.
The Asian Football Confederation said in a statement its tournament will be held on the same dates in the eastern city of Nanjing.
It said the change was proposed by the Chinese Football Association.
The International Oly mpic Committee Boxing Task Force said that the local organising committee had cancelled its event “amid growing concerns in relation to t he coronav i r us outbrea k cit y”.
They said t hat t he various sports bod ies i nvolved wou ld “ex plore a lternatives”.
Boxing was almost excluded from the 2020 Olympic programme after a series of scandals. The amateur boxing body Aiba was stripped of the right to organise the Olympic competition and replaced with the special task force. repor te d i n t he
Seventeen people have died and at least 500 have been infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars)-like coronavirus that has spread around China, with the vast majority of cases reported in Wuhan.
A seafood market that sold wild animals is the suspected source of the outbreak.
The coronavirus has caused alarm for its similarity to Sars, which killed nearly 650 people across mainland
China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.
Cases have a lso been repor ted outside China, in countries including the US, South Korea, Japan and Thailand.
Even before the announcement about the postponement of the football qualifiers, Taiwan’s football association had warned it would withdraw from the matches if they were held in Wuhan, saying that “the safety of players is our top priority”.