Swimming-European championships postponed to August due to coronavirus

Reuters | Hungary

Updated: 20-03-2020 18:56 IST | Created: 20-03-2020 17:55 IST

Image Credit: ANI

The 2020 European Aquatics Championships that was scheduled to take place from May 11-24 in Budapest, Hungary, has been postponed to August due to the coronavirus outbreak, Europe's aquatics governing body (LEN) said on Friday.

The event has been tentatively postponed to Aug. 17-30 -- a week after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are set to conclude. However, LEN President Paolo Barelli said they might consider moving the championships to 2021 if the situation does not improve in the coming months.

"At this stage it's difficult, if not impossible, to plan with a definite time frame," Barelli said in a statement. "So we agreed with the Hungarian organizers to reassess the situation in late May or early June to see if we can confirm these dates as official ones."

Hungary's minister for sports Dr. Tunde Szabo said the event could not be held under the current circumstances where fans would not be allowed to pack stadiums and swimmers unable to prepare for events. "We all wish to see packed stands in the Duna Arena," Szabo said. "The participating athletes deserve to enjoy that.

"And of course they also deserve the chance to have quality preparations before the big events since nowadays it's almost impossible to train properly."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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