The chaos caused in the sports calendar by the coronavirus epidemic in China takes on a new magnitude and spreads to neighboring countries with the cancellation of golf competitions in Singapore and Thailand. In football, the resumption of the Chinese Super League, scheduled for February 22, has been postponed, like all the matches of the Asian Champions League involving Chinese teams, with the exception of Beijing Guoan, whose workforce moved to South Korea.
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The women’s Olympic qualification tournament, originally scheduled for Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic, has been moved to Sydney. The Chinese team has been quarantined upon arrival in Australia but may play well next week.
In athletics, the Asian Indoor Championships scheduled for February 12 and 13 in Hangzhou have been canceled while the World Championships (Nanjing, March 13 to 15) have been postponed to 2021. In skiing, the World Cup events scheduled for Xiaohaituo mountain (a downhill and a super-G, from February 12 to 16) were moved to Austria. In swimming, world series diving events in Beijing and synchronized swimming in Suzhou have been canceled.
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Formula 1 suspended
In badminton, the Asian Championships scheduled for Wuhan from April 21 to 26 are suspended, but the China Masters, which was to be held from February 25 to March 1 on Hainan Island, has been postponed after the withdrawal of multiple players. Nor will the island host the Tour of Hainan, which the International Cycling Union has just canceled, or the Sanya Formula E ePrix.
The Olympic boxing qualification tournament, scheduled for Wuhan in February, was rescheduled in March in Amman (Jordan). The wrestling event will not take place in Xi’an in March as planned, but the International Wrestling Federation has not yet determined the new host city. Also suspended, the Formula 1 Chinese GP, scheduled for Shanghai from April 17 to 19. The FIA is maintaining it, for now.
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