2020 Olympics, French Open, UEFA Champions League … Sports activities grounded by COVID-19 across the globe
Several sporting events worldwide have been been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak ravaging countries.
The pandemic has not only forced postponement of many sporting events but also the cancellation of others.
Halting of these sports actitivities seem to have put the world in a stationed truck where everyone is gasping for air, praying that the truck moves soon.
All the fun-filled sporting events ranging from football to tennis, basketball, boxing, racing among so many others have suspended ongoing competitions and sports lovers of these different sports are not finding it funny.
CRISPNG’s Victor Akuma examines some of the major sporting activities affected by the COVID-19 outbreak across the globe.
1. Football : This is believed to be the first affected sport by the virus with as several players and coaches of the game testing positive for the pandemic..
Competitions in this sport have all been halted by the league heads. Other competitions like the Euro 2020 has equally be postponed to the 2021 summer, from June 11 to July 11.
UEFA competitions like the Champions like and Europa, both male and female categories have also been.
2. Olympics and Paralympics: The competition initially slated for this year has been shifted till 2021.
A statement read: “In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.”
3. Basketball: The NBA season has been shifted after Utah Jazz player, Rudy Gobert, tested positive for the virus.
4. Golf: All Golf competitions have equally been shifted, including U.S PGA and The Andalucia Masters.
5. Rugby Union: All Rugby competitions have been postponed including the Guinness PRO14, which was postponed indefinitely.
6. Cricket: England’s Test series against Sri Lanka was postponed with the touring players returning home and the ECB announcing there will be no professional Cricket competition in England and Wales till May 28. These among other Cricket competitions have been postponed
7. Boxing: Shakur Stevenson vs Miguel Marriaga and James Kirkland vs Marcos Hernandez slated for March 14 were postponed, including all other boxing events.
8. Motorsports: Formula One’s governing body approved a revised shutdown period – which had been reserved for August – to enable the possibility for racing throughout the summer. Team factories will be ordered to close for three consecutive weeks at an elected time between now and the end of April.
9. Motorcycling: The opening three rounds of the British Superbike Championship – at Silverstone, Oulton Park and Donington Park – have been postponed as well as other games in the sport.
10. American Football: After New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton confirmed he has tested positive for the virus, which was the first reported case associated with the NFL, leadership of the sport suspended all other games in the current season.
11. Tennis: The French Open moved from its scheduled spring slot to September, same with the ATP and WTA as they announced the tennis season was suspended until 7th June.
12. Racing: The Grand National, due to take place on April 4, was canceled, same with other national racing competitions.
13. Athletics: The World Indoor Championships, which had been due to take place in Nanjing in China in the month of March, were rearranged for March 2021.
14. Rugby League: All rugby league fixtures, from the Betfred Super League to “the community game”, were suspended until at least April 3.
15. Cycling: Fears of two cases of coronavirus at the UAE Tour saw the race cancelled with two stages left and this affected the whole of the cycling federations.
16. Snooker: The World Snooker Championship at the Crucible between April 18 and May 4 has been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
17. Swimming and diving: British Swimming confirmed that the Diving World Series event scheduled for London later this month was canceled. Other swimming federations have equally stopped their competitions.
18. Ice skating: The World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, scheduled for March 13-15, were called off. The World Figure Skating Championships in Quebec, planned for March 16-22, were also cancelled for the same issue.
19. Judo: The virus outbreak has equally caused the International Judo Federation to cancel all Olympic qualification events on their calendar until April 30.
20. Darts: The European Darts Grand Prix in Sindelfingen and the European Darts Open in Leverkusen, which were all scheduled for later this month, including next month’s German Darts Grand Prix in Munich were all postponed.
21. Ice hockey: The NHL has been put on a hold with 189 games regular-season remaining. The Stanley Cup play-offs were due to start the week of April 6 but will still be reviewed if cases of the virus persist.
22. Netball: The supper league season of Netball has been postponed till further notice, no thanks to COVID-19.
23. Baseball: A number of the leagues in this sport had earlier announced that their games will be delayed for eight weeks, pending on how the virus is contained by health experts.
24. Rowing: The Boat Race, scheduled to take place on March 29 has been cancelled by the Rowing leadership body. It is noteworthy these are glaring sports with worse hit of the pandemic, however, there lie some other sports that are not mentioned here because they haven’t had serious effects of the virus in their activities.
