Anniversary Games cancelled as new calendar prepared for Diamond League
The Anniversary Games has been cancelled as the Diamond League announced a new provisional calendar for 2020. The series has been forced to reschedule and cancel events because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Anniversary Games,
London’s Diamond League event which was scheduled for 4 and 5 July, was called off yesterday in a massive financial blow to UK Athletics.
UKA chief executive Joanna Coates said: “Cancelling the event will have a significant financial impact on UKA and the wider sport.
“The revenue we generate from events – through ticketing, broadcast and sponsorship – helps administer the sport and provide the essential governance services that we, as an NGB, oversee.
“We’re incredibly thankful to our commercial partners, some of which are continuing to support us during these tough times but there will be a substantial reduction in income from the cancellation of this event and this will have an impact moving forwards.”
This year’s Diamond League will not be a series of events culminating in a final as usual and athletes will not earn points this season. The final in Zurich has been scrapped.
A Diamond League statement read: “This provisional calendar will see a number of Wanda Diamond League meetings go ahead as one-off, exhibitionevents,whileothers will be staged as adapted Wanda Diamond League meetings. There will be no events in July and the first half of August (other than National Championships where possible), and the season will instead be extended into October. Each meeting organiser will review and announce the format of their competition and which disciplines are included two months before the event takes place so they can work with the prevailing conditions set by their governments.
“This two-month window will help to give athletes time to prepare mentally, stay motivated and adjust training for competition. Some organisers might choose to stage their events in innovative, alternative formats and/or under social distancing regulations.”
Gateshead is still due to host an event on 16 August, with Monaco and Stockholm also pencilled in for that month.
In September, Lausanne will host on the 2nd, Brussels (4th), Paris (6th), (Rome/naples (17th) and Shanghai (19th).
In October, there will be events in Eugene (4th), Doha (9th) and a second meeting in China on the 17th.