Wuhan virus: women’s football tournament moved from Wuhan to Nanjing while Olympic boxing qualifier scrapped, report says
- The Asian Football Confederation says the round-robin football competition featuring China, Australia, Taiwan and Thailand will be played in Nanjing
- China says more than 400 people have been infected and at least nine killed since the outbreak emerged last month.
A boxing qualifier for the Tokyo Olympics scheduled for next month in China’s Wuhan will be cancelled over the outbreak of a new virus, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said, while a women’s football qualifying tournament has been moved from the city.
Citing organisers, Kyodo said on Wednesday the boxing qualifier would be rescheduled and moved from Wuhan, where the outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus is believed to have begun.
There was no independent confirmation from the organisers, and Japan’s boxing federation said it was waiting to hear from the International Olympic Committee on the reported cancellation.
Kyodo said the IOC was expected to announce a new host and schedule for the qualifiers.
Boxing has struggled in the run-up to the 2020 Games, and was almost excluded from the Olympic programme after a series of scandals. The amateur boxing body Aiba was stripped of the right to organise the Olympic competition and replaced with a special task force.