By Dan Palmer |
The Baseball Final Qualifier for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has been moved from April until June due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Action is now scheduled in Taichung and Dou Liu in Taiwan from June 17 to 21, instead of April 1 to 5.
A statement from the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) said that the decision was made due to “player, personnel and spectator health and safety measures”.
The governing body made the decision alongside the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association and the Chinese Taipei Professional Baseball League.
Government and medical authorities were also consulted.
Six teams are due to play at the event, including China where the coronavirus outbreak originated.
They will be joined by hosts Chinese Taipei, Australia, The Netherlands and the second and third-placed finishers from this month’s Americas Qualifier in Arizona.
The winner of the tournament will earn the final berth at Tokyo 2020.
Japan, Israel, South Korea and Mexico have already qualified for this year’s Games, where men’s baseball will return to the programme following its axing following Beijing 2008.
There have now been more than 89,000 cases of coronavirus, and more than 3,000 deaths.
Numerous sporting events have been either postponed or cancelled.
Taiwan has reported 40 cases, and one person has died in the country.
The vast majority of patients have been in China itself.
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.