China will not hold most international sporting events for the rest of 2020 as part of measures to stop the spread of coronavirus, the government said Thursday, dealing a potential blow to the likes of BWF Finals, Formula One and tennis.
Shanghai’s sports authority recently said that it had been offered two Formula One races this year, while several tennis tournaments in China are on the WTA’s proposed calendar. Not only this, also impacted will be BWF World Tour Finals in Guangzhou from December 16. All these events will now not take place in China this year.
The General Administration of Sport, China’s highest sporting authority, said in a statement that, except for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic test events “and other important events, in principle, no other international sports events will be held this year.” It did not specify which competitions will be hit, but the official Xinhua news agency said that “lots of international sport events will be affected”.
With this announcement the year-end BWF World Tour Final scheduled to be held at Guangzhou from December 16 will also be cancelled. Though BWF is yet to make any official announcement after the directive by the Chinese government, but in all likelihood one of the most prestigious badminton event will now not take place in 2020. Finding an alternative venue to host Finals when the world is grappling with Covid-19 is no easy task. Moreover, the Finals is the highest paid event with a prize money of $1500,000.
