Sports bodies around the world have called off events in a bid to prevent the spread of COVID-19, with athletics, baseball, tennis, and table tennis events among the top-level cancelations in Taiwan.
The New Taipei City Marathon on March 15 has been canceled, the final Olympic baseball qualifying tournament in Taichung and Douliu City from April 1 to 5 was postponed to June 17 to 21, the ATP Taipei Challenger from March 30 to April 5 was postponed, the Asian Cup table tennis event in Tainan on March 8 was postponed and the XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championships offroad triathlon and duathlon in Taiwan on March 28 and 29 was canceled.
In Kuala Lumpur, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) suspended all tournaments from tomorrow until April 12.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“The suspension of the circuit will come into effect following the completion of the Yonex All England Open in Birmingham on Sunday [today],” it said in a statement.
In London, Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen advanced to the semi-finals at the All England Open on Friday with a 21-11, 21-12 win over fellow Taiwanese Wang Tzu-wei in Birmingham.
In France, Germany’s Maximilian Schachmann held on to the overall lead of the Paris-Nice on Friday, with racing set to go ahead yesterday, despite the pandemic.
The final stage scheduled for today was canceled, with French rider Romain Bardet criticizing a “lack of unity” in the peloton.
With a fine solo finish under bright blue skies, Belgium’s Tiesj Benoot won the 161.5km run through the Luberon hills to Apt in Provence in the southeast of France on Friday.
Benoot climbed to second in the overall standings, trailing Schachmann by 36 seconds.
Two other key challengers also strengthened their bids as Colombian climber Sergio Higuita moved to within 1 minute, 1second and third overall, while Italian Vincenzo Nibali was 1 minute, 18 seconds back in sixth.
Yesterday’s summit finish atop La Colmiane was to provide the finale to the race.
Bardet said he had mixed feelings about continuing with the race on Friday.
“We were racing flat out. I had fun out there, why not let yourself go a bit, even if it makes no sense racing in this context,” Bardet said. “Some are leaving, others are not, we may end up with 30 riders. I wonder where the meaning is in there... We’re out on our little ride as if nothing has happened.”
Schachmann had been in a group about 20 seconds adrift of Benoot, but crashed on the final descent less than 1km from home.
New Zealand abandoned their one-day cricket tour of Australia after Wellington tightened border restrictions to combat the virus’ spread.
The Blacks Caps lost the opening game of the three-match series on Friday and were due to play the second in Sydney today, but they were to fly home immediately after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that everyone entering the country from midnight today would have to self-isolate for 14 days.
Meanwhile, the Indian Premier League postponed the start of the world’s most lucrative cricket competition.
The start of the Twenty20 tournament has been put back from March 29 until April 15 because of the coronavirus, the Board of Control for Cricket in India said.
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