European Athletics Championships cancelled: organisers

 The 2020 European Athletics Championships, that have been set to be held in Paris come early july, have been cancelled as a result of coronavirus pandemic, organisers announced on Thursday.

In a statement, the event’s organising committee and French Athletics Federation (FFA) said they “wanted to adopt a responsible position by putting human health and the fight the spread of the virus before any other consideration”.

The championships were scheduled for August 25-30 however the cancellation, which follows the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021, implies that athletics has lost its two biggest events of the entire year.

Continental governing body European Athletics said that the decision followed a meeting between the organising committee and the FFA and “a youthful meeting between the relevant French authorities” - like the country’s interior and sport ministries.

“We really tried. Most of us hoped that the situation might improve rapidly, but regrettably that wasn’t the case,” said Jean Gracia, president of the organising committee.

“We looked at all of the possibilities, including reducing the quantity of athletes in each contest and halving the quantity of spectators.”

European Athletics’ interim president Dobromir Karamarinov said: “Whilst we regret announcing the cancellation of our European Athletics Championships, it really is worth reiterating that in these unprecedented times medical and safety of most athletics’ stakeholders including athletes, fans, officials, partners and everyone connected with the sport is paramount.”

European Athletics added that it could discuss the “other changes to the global athletics calendar that contain been forced upon the sport” at its next videoconference on May 7-8.