Sporting Events, The outbreak of coronavirus has disrupted everything on the globe, with one of the biggest sufferers being sports. COVID-19 will certainly be the fastest ever growing deadly virus all over the world. Till date there has been almost 1, 563, 857 cases and 95,044 deaths and counting. COVID -19 has certainly blown away my mind. The 2019 Coronavirus pandemic has caused many sporting events around the world to be cancelled or postponed.
2020 SUMMER OLYMPICS
One of the most important sporting event to be postponed in the sporting calendar is the Summer Olympics, 2020. Tokyo was the venue for the event. It is the first time in Olympics 124- years history that it is postponed. Tokyo Olympics has been postponed mainly because of the pressure the athletes were building towards the authorities because they felt uncertain about their security towards the virus, followed by the individual sports federations of the 3 major Olympics nations [Canada, America, France] and National Olympic Community.
Olympic competition has been cancelled only three times in the 124-year history, and all three instances were because of global conflict (1916, World War I; 1940 and 1944, World War II). The World War The Tokyo,2020 Olympics will now take place on July 23- Aug. 8, 2021, with the Paralympic Games to follow Aug. 24- Sept. 5, 2021.
EURO 2020, POSTPONED FOR A YEAR
The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship [UEFA Euro 2020], is the 16th UEFA European Championship. The Union of European Football Associations organizes the international men’s football championship of Europe. Originally Euro 2020 season was supposed to be held from 12 June to 12 July.
It is announced that the Women’s Euro 2021 will also be postponed. The outbreak of COVID-19 forced UEFA to postpone the forthcoming EURO, 2020 championship. The postponement of the event has helped in preventing the people to come out of their houses and sit in the stadium provoking the spread of the virus. Now it will take place from 11 June to 11 July 2021. All the football fans all over the world were very sad after listening to the news. The first player in the league who became corona positive was Daniele Rugani [Juventus centre -back]. Afterwards, several players became corona positive.
WIMBLEDON CANCELLED FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE WORLD WAR 2
This will be the only time that the event is cancelled since 1945 that the oldest tennis competition won’t be played. The news comes as a great disappointment to tennis players all over the world. Earlier it was postponed between World War I and II due to war situation. The New Session madness has come to an end and everyday life around the world is disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wimbledon,2020 was scheduled to be played on the grass courts in London Stadium from June 29 to July 12. Along with this, the French open is also postponed from late May to late September. Many living tennis legends showed their disappointment by writing posts to their fans on Twitter like Serena Williams, said “ I’m Shooked ” and Roger Federer, saying “Devasted” and “There is no GIF for these things that I am feeling.” It also hurts the Londoners for yet another reason that there won’t be any strawberries and cream served at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, a tradition that began in 1877. Now the event will be staged from 28 June to 11 July 2021.
FORMULA 1 POSTPONEMENT
In accordance with COVID-19 present situation, Formula 1 ongoing races are kept at a halt. The 70th instalment of Formula 1 was supposed to start on 15 March 2020. Currently, Formula 1 and FIA is thinking of continuing the season at the end of May but the date can further be extended depending on the spread and effects of the virus. So all the races till the end of May including the Dutch and Spanish Grand Prix have been postponed. The future of continuing the races this year is uncertain.
The Formula 1 and FIA have reached to a conclusion of organizing races from the start of June but with no audience to cheer. All these decisions have been taken by the authorities in order to ensure the health and safety of the travelling staff, championship participants and fans.
NBA 2019-2020 SUSPENDED AFTER MULTIPLE PLAYERS TESTED POSITIVE FOR THE VIRUS
After the COVID-19 outbreak, many NBA league players were tested Corona positive. Even though many have recovered/are recovering the further continuation of the season seems impossible. The 74th instalment of NBA started on 22 Oct 2019. The NBA and Major International Basketball league have either been halted or postponed due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The first NBA league basketball player to be tested Corona positive was Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert. Currently, three players were tested positive for COVID -19 and counting. This forced the NBA to postpone the further matches from March 11 to prevent further spread of the virus to any league players.
INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 2020
The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will not begin on 29 March due to COVID-19 threat. Currently, the tournament is postponed to 15 April, but it may further be postponed depending on the spread and effects of the virus. IPL 2020 was originally scheduled to be started on March 29 and the whole season was to take place for 50 days and end on May 17. Every Indian cricket fan was highly dejected after getting news for the postponement of IPL. In its history of 12 years, the event was never postponed. If the BCCI takes the call of starting the IPL,2020 then the matches will be played without anyone cheering in the stadium, with empty stands.
Pranshu Sharan
CLASS XI
APEEJAY SCHOOL, SECTOR 15, FARIDABAD
SPORTS FAN AND AVID READER OF SPORTING EVENTS
