The European Gymnastics Federation has decided to move the 2020 MAG and WAG European Championships to Mersin, Turkey. The men’s competition will take place from 9th to 13th of December, and the women’s competition – from 17th to 20th of December. Originally, the competitions were supposed to take place in Paris in April for WAG and in Baku in May for MAG. They were postponed due to the pandemic and Paris later withdrew from hosting the event.
Last week, the European Federation was supposed to announce their final decision on whether the competition would take place at all since many countries around Europe are experiencing another spike in COVID-19 infections. However, they postponed the decision for a week and only announced that this year’s competition will no longer be an Olympic qualifier. In addition to the ongoing pandemic, Azerbaijan, the supposed host of the competition, is currently engaged in an armed conflict with its neighbor Armenia over the disputed territories of Nagorny Karabakh.
Turkey stepped in as the new host. They already have experience hosting World Cups in Mersin and this will sure prepare them for the 2023 European Championships scheduled for Antalya. However, two countries have already announced that they will not participate in the competition and there will probably be more.
Great Britain said their senior and junior gymnasts will skip the event due to the current epidemiological situation in Europe. Some other countries might decide to follow. In addition to the increased risk of being exposed to the coronavirus during travel or at a big international event, having to quarantine after coming home is a real possibility. Assuming that 2021 gymnastics events will still happen, it would mean missing two weeks of training just a few months before the Olympic qualifiers and the Olympics.
Turkey is one of the few European countries that still actively welcome tourists from around the world, including “red” countries such as the USA, Russia, or Israel without a mandatory COVID-19 test. Due to this and the rising number of positive cases, some of the European countries, in turn, placed Turkey on the “red” list. For example, British tourists are currently required to quarantine for two weeks after visiting Turkey.
The Armenian Olympic Committee has announced today the country’s national team will boycott the championships but not due to the concerns about the pandemic. Turkey is actively backing Azerbaijan in the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh and thus, is indirectly at war with Armenia. Armenia and Turkey in general have a tense relationship after the Armenian Genocide perpetrated bu Turkey in the beginning of the 20th century. Armenian gymnasts also originally planned to boycott the championships in Azerbaijan as all Armenian athletes boycott sports events in Azerbaijan due to the ongoing conflict between the countries.
Akop Serobyan, the national team coach, said that instead of attending the European Championships, Armenian gymnasts will first have a camp in Belarus and attend a competition in Minsk and will finish the year at the Voronin Cup in Russia.
Unlike the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation which withdrew from the RG Euros in Kiev, the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation confirmed they plan to attend the competition. Valentina Rodionenko told R-Sport:
“For us, nothing changes. We planned on competing in Baku, now it will be Turkey. Only we’ll have to have a stopover in Istanbul and fly for another hour an a half from there. No matter, as long as there are competitions, because the athletes have been without competitions for almost a year.”
“There were talks that Hungary wanted to host the championships. Because Azerbaijan withdrew from hosting due to the events in the country. And now the Hungarians said they won’t host due to the coronavirus situation.”
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