Sports events hit by the coronavirus epidemic
(Reuters) - The following is a list of international sports events hit by the outbreak of the new coronavirus:
ATHLETICS
* The World Athletics Indoor Championships, scheduled for Nanjing from March 13-15, were postponed until next year. World Athletics is working with organisers on a date to host the biennial event in 2021.
* A mixed relay Olympic triathlon qualification event to be held in the Chinese city of Chengdu in May was moved to Valencia in Spain, the International Triathlon Union said.
Three Asian Cup events, one in Taiwan and two in China, scheduled for March and April have been postponed.
RUGBY
* The Irish Rugby Football Union has postponed the country’s Six Nations fixture against Italy due to the virus outbreak in northern Italy. The game was scheduled to take place in Dublin on March 7.
SOCCER
* Six Italian Serie A matches which had been scheduled to go ahead behind closed doors on Feb. 29-March 1, including the clash between Juventus and Inter Milan, have been postponed to May 13, Italy’s soccer league said.
The Coppa Italia final, due to be played May 13, was moved to May 20.
The government extended a ban on supporters at matches in three regions but lifted it in the Piedmont region, home to title holders Juventus.
* The Swiss soccer league (SFL) has been put on hold until at least March 23 after the clubs rejected the possibility of playing matches behind closed doors.
* Asian Champions League matches involving Chinese clubs Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai SIPG were postponed.
Guangzhou and the Shanghai clubs will join the competition in April, with their group matches due to be played in May.
AFC Champions League knockout rounds have been moved from May to August to allow the disrupted group stage matches to be played in May and June.
* China’s 2022 World Cup qualifiers against Maldives at home and Guam away in March will be moved to Buriram, Thailand. The game will be played behind closed doors.
* Vietnam did not allow sports events to be hosted in February, meaning home AFC Cup group stage matches for Ho Chi Minh City and Than Quang Ninh will be switched to away fixtures.
* The Chinese Football Association said domestic games at all levels would be postponed.
* The AFC said preliminary stage matches of the East Zone of the AFC Cup 2020 had been postponed by two months to recommence on April 7 due to travel curbs.
* The AFC said it was looking at alternative dates for the women’s Olympic qualifying playoff between China and South Korea which is scheduled to be played on March 6 and 11.
* South Korea’s professional soccer league has postponed the start of its new season. The league also asked its four teams in the AFC Champions League to hold games behind closed doors.
* Japan’s J League postponed seven Levian Cup matches scheduled for Feb. 26 and all domestic games until the first half of March.
FORMULA ONE
* The Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai set for April 19 has been postponed by the governing body FIA and Formula One.
Authorities will weigh up potential alternative dates later this year.
FORMULA E
* The all-electric Formula E motor racing series abandoned plans for a race in Sanya, on China’s Hainan island, on March 21.
MOTOGP
* The opening two rounds of the season, in Qatar (March 8) and Thailand (March 22), will not go ahead as scheduled.
TENNIS
* The International Tennis Federation moved the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Group I event featuring China, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea and Uzbekistan out of the Chinese city of Dongguan to Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana) in Kazakhstan.
But the Feb. 4-8 event was later postponed after Kazakhstan declined to serve as substitute hosts.
* China forfeited a Davis Cup tie because its men’s team was unable to travel to Romania for the March 6-7 playoff.
* The women’s Xi’an Open tennis tournament, scheduled for April 13-19, was cancelled and the WTA said it was monitoring the situation with several events scheduled to take place in China in the second half of the season.
TABLE TENNIS
* The world championship to be held in Busan, South Korea, from March 22-29 have been pushed back provisionally to
June 21-28.
BADMINTON
* The 2020 German Open, which was to be held in Muelheim an der Ruhr from March 3-8 and is an Olympic qualifier, has been cancelled, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) said.
The 2020 Polish Open, another Olympic qualifier scheduled to be held in Krakow from March 26 to 29 has been postponed and will now fall outside the Olympic qualification period, the Polish Badminton Association said.
The Portuguese International Championships scheduled to start on March 5 will not go ahead. The BWF said no decision has been taken on whether the Olympic qualifying event will be played in the future.
* The Vietnam International Challenge has been put back from March to June and will no longer serve as a qualifying event for the Tokyo Olympics. The tournament was due to take place from March 24 to 29.
* The BWF said it hoped the flagship Badminton Asia Championships could go ahead in Wuhan from April 21-26. Advertisement
SPEED SKATING
* The International Skating Union postponed the March 1315 short track speed skating world championships in Seoul, South Korea and the event will not be held before October.
BOXING
* The International Olympic Committee announced Jordan as hosts of the boxing qualifiers for Asia and Oceania after an event in Wuhan was cancelled. They will now take place in Amman from March 3 to 11.
GOLF
* The women’s LPGA golf tour cancelled the March 5-8 Blue Bay tournament to be held on Hainan.
The tour also cancelled the Honda LPGA Thailand event in Pattaya and the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore.
* The Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific championship in Pattaya, Thailand, has been rescheduled for Oct. 7-10.
* The PGA Tour Series-China postponed two qualifying events and delayed the start of its 2020 campaign by two months, cutting the number of regular-season events to 10 from 14.
* The European Tour said the Maybank Championship (April 16-19 in Kuala Lumpur) and the Volvo China Open (April 23-26 in Shenzhen) had been postponed.
HOCKEY
* Pro League matches between China and Australia, scheduled for March 14-15 in Changzhou, will not be played.
RUGBY SEVENS
* The Singapore and Hong Kong legs of the World Rugby
Sevens Series have been postponed from April to October.
VOLLEYBALL
* A beach volleyball tournament, due to be held from April 22 to 26 in Yangzhou, has been postponed until after the Olympics.
WEIGHTLIFTING
* The April 16-25 Asian weightlifting championships has been relocated from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan.
CYCLING
* The final two stages of the UAE Tour were cancelled after two Italian participants tested positive for coronavirus. Tests on 167 people at the event proved negative for coronavirus after they were feared to have been exposed to the infected cases.
TRIATHLON
* The opening round of the World Triathlon Series scheduled to be held in Abu Dhabi from March 5-7 has been postponed.
BASEBALL
* The World Baseball Softball Confederation postponed its final qualification tournament for the Olympics. The six-team event, originally scheduled for April 1-5 in Taiwan, will now take place from June 17-21.
BIATHLON
* The Czech Republic’s state security council decided the country would host a World Cup biathlon event in Nove Mesto on March 5-8 without spectators.