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The coronavirus pandemic has affected TrackTown USA in a negative way. Organisers of the US Olympic Trials taking place in Eugene, OR will be refunding some tickets as the volume of spectators is limited at events.
They will take place between June 18 and 27, and is the second major track meet to take place at the re-built Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.
The World Athletics Championships were scheduled to take place at Hayward in 2021, however, were postponed to 2022 due to the pandemic as well as the Olympic Games in Tokyo being re-scheduled to 2021.
Canada’s racewalking team
Athletics Canada leadership announced today that Canada will not send a team to the 2021 Pan American Race Walking Cup in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on May 7.
This difficult decision was made due to potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus over the course of a complicated travel plan to Ecuador, as well as the risks inherent in staying and competing during the pandemic.
“It is very hard to judge from here what the COVID situation would be like on site. We are committed to our athletes’ and coaches’ safety and have worked hard to assess the risk associated with the event,” said Simon Nathan, Athletics Canada’s High Performance Director. “In the end, we can not confirm accurate case counts, infection rates, or other important details related to the situation in Ecuador. What we do know is that hospitals, and the health care system in general, are overwhelmed and the death rate is very high. Couple that with the prevalence of variants of concern and variants of high consequence, and we have had to make this decision for the safety and wellbeing of our team.”
Event host city Guayaquil has been one of the areas hardest hit by COVID-19 in Ecuador. A state of emergency was declared this past weekend, with 16 of the country’s 24 provinces locked down in the face of new virus variants.
Canada’s World Athletics Relay withdrawal
On April 24, the national governing body announced via press release that Canada will not send a team to the World Athletics Relays. Several other countries have also dropped out including the top two, Jamaica, and the U.S. Currently, the pandemic is surging in its third wave through Europe. The meet is scheduled to take place in Chorzow, Poland, from May 1 to 2.
READ: Canada’s outdoor track season uncertain>>
India May miss World Athletics World Relays Olympic qualifier meet
Star sprinters Hima Das and Dutee Shand might miss the Olympic qualifying World Athletics Relays in Poland on May 1 and 2 as the Indian team’s connecting flight to Amsterdam has been suspended following the record-shattering spike in the country’s Covid-19 caseload.
The women’s 4x100m and the men’s 4x400m relay teams were to board a KLM flight to Amsterdam in the wee hours on Thursday but the Dutch government has suspended flights from India effective Monday evening.
