CORONA EFFECT

FOOTBALL: China has suspended all domestic football and postponed indefinitely the top-flight Chinese Super League season kick-off due on February 22 in order to “carry out prevention and control of the pneumonia epidemic,” said the Chinese Football Association.

ATHLETICS: The World Indoor Championships, scheduled for Nanjing from March 13-15, were postponed for a year.

BOXING: A qualification event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics initially scheduled from February 3-14 in Wuhan was rescheduled for Amman in Jordan from March 3-11.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Another Olympic qualifying tournament, a four-team battle for three Tokyo places between China, Great Britain, Spain and South Korea was moved on Monday from Foshan, in southern China, to Belgrade where it will run alongside another four-team group on February 6-9.

AQUATICS: The Chinese leg of the Diving World Series, scheduled for March 7-9 in Beijing, “has been cancelled,” Cornel Marculescu, president of the international swimming federation said. The World Series of synchronised swimming, scheduled for Suzhou from April 23-25, was also in question.

CYCLING: The Tour of Hainan, due to be promoted to the second-tier ProSeries this year, was scheduled from February 23 to March 1 in Hainan. It has been cancelled and could be held later this year.

FORMULA ONE: The Chinese Grand Prix race weekend is scheduled for Shanghai from April 17-19. “We are monitoring the situation in close collaboration with F1, the promoter and with the Federation of Automobile Sports in China, which is our conduit on the ground in China,” governing body FIA said in a statement.

FORMULA E: The electric car racing series is also due to stage a race in China, on March 21 on the southern island of Hainan. A Formula E statement read: “We have requested that our regional partner works together with the local motorsport federation, to liaise with the relevant authorities in Hainan province to further analyse and assess the situation.”

FOOTBALL: China is due to host the Maldives in a World Cup qualifying match on March 26 and travel to Guam for another on March 31 and said despite the postponement of all domestic football any decision on international fixtures would be made at a later date.

WRESTLING: The Asian Olympic qualifying tournament scheduled for March 27-29 in Xi’an could be cancelled. “We are following the situation closely and we are in close contact with the Chinese federation and local authorities,” Nenad Lalovic, president of the International Wrestling Federation said. —