COVID-19: Diamond League releases new provisional 2020 calendar

Paris, May 13 (IANS) The Diamond League has announced a shortened, provisional calendar for this year in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the new calendar, there will be no point system, no overall league winners this year and the final in Zurich will not be held.

The new calendar will begin with the Monaco meeting on August 14 and continue through until mid-October to adapt the season in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The last meeting of the season will be held on October 17 in China with the venue to be announced later.

“The 2020 Wanda Diamond League will not be a structured series of events leading to a final as is usually the case. Given the current discrepancies in training and travel opportunities, it would be impossible to ensure a level playing field and a fair qualification system during 2020.

“Athletes will therefore not earn Diamond League points this season, and there will not be a single, 24-discipline final in Zurich as originally planned,” Diamond League announced on its website on Tuesday.

The originally 14-leg competition has been cut to 11 meetings. Apart from the Diamond League final due to be staged from September 9 to 11, the Rabat and London meetings will also be cancelled.

The 2020 Diamond League series had been planned to start on April 17 in Doha, but was forced to suspend a number of its meetings as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic which has wreaked havoc across the world.

World Athletics has also asked each meeting organisers to review and announce the format of the competition and which disciplines are included two months before the event takes place so that athletes may have necessary time to prepare for competition. It has also encouraged meeting organisers to “stage their events in innovative, alternative formats and/or under social distancing regulations”.

–IANS

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