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Coronavirus: All the sports events cancelled, postponed globally

A list of event changes in sports due to the coronavirus outbreak



UAE Tour Stage V
Image Credit: UAE Tour

Olympics

Crowds will be smaller and receptions have been scrapped at the Tokyo 2020 torch-lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia, Greece next week. The dress rehearsal the day before will be held without spectators.

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.

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

Italy has ordered all major sporting events, including top-flight Serie A soccer games, to be played without fans for one month in a bid to curb Europe's worst outbreak of the virus.

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Football events

Formula One

The Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai set for April 19 has been postponed by the governing body FIA and Formula One. The authorities will consider alternative dates later in the year.

Melbourne's major events chief Martin Pakula is confident the Australian Grand Prix will go ahead as scheduled on March 15, but said he could offer no firm guarantees because of the dynamic nature of the epidemic.

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.

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Australian rules football The Australian Football League said the game between St Kilda Saints and Port Adelaide Power scheduled for May 31 in China had been moved out of the country.

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 WTA cancelled the Xi'an Open (April 13-19) and Kunming Open (April 27-May 3) in China. The governing body of women's tennis said it would monitor the situation with several events scheduled to take place in the country later this season.

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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 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.

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The Badminton Asia Championships, originally scheduled in Wuhan from April 21-26, will go ahead on the planned dates after it was shifted to the Philippines.

Ice hockey

The International Ice Hockey Federation cancelled six world championship tournaments in March and April in lower divisions in Estonia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Luxembourg, Poland and Spain on the advice of the governing body's medical committee.

Speed skating The International Skating Union postponed the March 13-15 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.

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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.

The Asian Tour said the Royals' Cup 2020, scheduled for March 12-15 in Thailand, has been postponed indefinitely.

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Hockey

Pro League matches between China and Australia, scheduled for March 14-15 in Changzhou, will not be played.

Rugby Sevens

The Japanese Rugby Football Union said the April 25-26 Asia Sevens Invitational, which doubles as a test event for rugby sevens at the 2020 Olympics, had been cancelled.

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.

Four teams, including Britain's Ineos, have pulled out of several cycling races in Italy.

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.

Basketball

The first season of the NBA's Basketball Africa League, which was scheduled to tip off in Dakar, Senegal, on March 13, has been postponed.

The FIBA 3x3 Olympic qualification tournament that was scheduled to take place in Bengaluru, India from March 18-22 has been postponed.

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