The European Gymnastics Federation was supposed to make the final decision regarding the 2020 European Championships – whether they will take place. The competition was postponed until December due to the pandemic and the women’s competition was moved to Baku after Paris withdrew from hosting it. Until recently, Euros were supposed to be one of the Olympic qualifiers even though other continents postponed their qualifying competitions until 2021. In the end, the federation decided that it will not serve as a qualifier due to the situation. However, the final decision on whether the competition will take place at all was delayed for another week – until October 5th. The press release says the decision is delayed “due to some open organisational questions” which might be code for “a war just broke out in the host country”.
Azerbaijan, which is supposed to host both MAG and WAG European Championships in December, has been engaged in an ongoing armed conflict with Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh for over 30 years. The situation periodically escalates and is the reason Armenian athletes boycott all competitions in Azerbaijan. The current escalation started yesterday and have already led to dozens dead and hundreds wounded on both side. Armenia announced general mobilization, while Azerbaijan declared a state of emergency. If the situation escalates further, Baku might not be in a position to host any competitions even though it is relatively far from Karabakh.
According to the federation, Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships will be held in November in Kiev as planned. Kiev recently hosted two international competitions, Deriugina Cup in rhythmic gymnastics and Ukraine International Cup in artistic gymnastics. However, the infection rates are on the rise in Ukraine and if the organizers want to provide safe environment for the athletes, they need to step up their game, as social distancing and safety measures were barely an afterthought at those events.
