The European Climbing Championships that are scheduled to take place in 9 days may be postponed. The IFSC has sent a letter to the mayor of Moscow asking about postponing the event until June. Due to the COV 19 Coronavirus now moving through Europe the IFSC have deemed it might not be safe or responsible to mave climbers from around the world traveling.
The event is due to take place from the 20th to 27th of March, which is only 9 days from now. This could be a massive upset for the competitors. This is the last chance for European climbers to get the one Olympic invite left for Climbing at Tokyo 2020. If this were cancelled it would mean the next highest ranked climber from Hachioji – like has been done for the Asian Championships Olympic qualifiying event.
This wasn’t announced by the IFSC in public but in a news report on the Climbing Federation of Russia’s website and reported by 8a.nu. The news article is translated as below: –
“The 2020 European Climbing Championships in Moscow may be rescheduled from March to June 2020 due to the spread of the coronavirus infection COVID-19 in Europe.
On March 10, President of the International Federation of Sports Climbing Marko Skolaris sent an official letter to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin with a joint effort to find the possibility of holding the 2020 European Climbing Championship in Moscow at a later date. This will allow not to expose athletes, coaches, referees, spectators to potential danger.
The possibility of moving the tournament to June 2020 while maintaining the status of a qualifying event for the 2020 Olympic Games is being considered.”
Stefano Ghisolfi In Isolation
One of the competitors Stefano Ghisolfi is in self isolation. In Italy no non-essential travel is allowed, and people are being asked to confine themselves to their homes. His wife also suffers from a weakened immune system. Stefano would prefer the European Climbing Championships were postponed as he wants to be responsible and not travel to Moscow.
Find out more about Climbing at the 2020 Olympics.
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