The organizing committee of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 along with the Japan Gymnastics Association on Wednesday announced that the test event of Gymnastics for the Tokyo Olympic Games would be cancelled.
The Gymnastics event was scheduled to take place from April 4-5, has been called off because athletes and referees “declined to participate”, reported by the Xinhua news agency.
“The Japan Gymnastics Association was preparing for the ‘2020 Gymnastics World Cup Tokyo Tournament’, scheduled at the Ariake Gymnastics Stadium on April 4 and 5, but due to the Coronavirus infection in Europe the athletes and referees have continued to decline to participate,” the JGA has stated.
“Due to the effects of the spread of the disease and the suspension of the World Cups held in other countries, we have officially contacted the International Gymnastics Federation and decided to cancel.”
This is the second time a Test event of the Tokyo Olympics has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tokyo Challenge Volleyball tournament that was originally scheduled to be played between April 21-26 was also cancelled.
However, the Tokyo 2020 officials have issued a statement that they will attempt to carry out an “operational test” on the same date of the event. It is still unclear when will the date of the trials be scheduled amid the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Tokyo organizers are yet to conduct 15 more test events before the final one ending on May 6. Some tests are likely to happen on their scheduled days with the absence of the non-Japanese athletes around the practice campus.
Despite so much trepidation about the Coronavirus, the Japanese government has stayed firm on their decision on not postponing the events to any date and instead of conducting them from July 24 as scheduled. The Olympic Torch has already been lit and is set to arrive in Japan on Friday on a flight from Greece.
