Chinese gymnasts withdraw from Melbourne World Cup

As expected, Chinese gymnasts ended up having to withdraw from the Apparatus World Cup in Melbourne, Australia, due to the travel ban imposed by the Australian government. There were no reports of Chinese gymnasts getting ill with the novel coronavirus but they are affected by the quarantines imposed in different regions of China and some are unable to return to the national team training center in Beijing.

For now, there were no announcements regarding the American Cup which will take place on March 7th, but the US currently also has a travel ban in place for foreign citizens who have visited China in the past 14 days. As the epidemics is far from over at the moment, with more Chinese cities getting quarantined, and with a new study suggesting that the incubation period might be longer than 14 days, it seems unlikely that the US would lift the ban in the nearest future. This will potentially put China’s chances of qualifying extra spots to the Tokyo Olympics through the All-Around World Cup Series in jeopardy.

At the moment, Germany and Great Britain are not among the countries that imposed coronavirus-related travel bans, so, if this stays true, Chinese gymnasts should have no problem competing at Stuttgart and Birmingham AA World Cups. They are also likely to be allowed to enter Azerbaijan to compete at the Apparatus World Cup on on March 12-15, despite the fact that Azerbiajan imposed a travel ban. The country made an exception for the Chinese trampoline and tumbling team that will compete at the Baku World Cup this weekend. The team had to submit their test results in order to enter the country and all delegation members have to take their temperature three times a day throughout their stay in Baku and report the results to the Azerbaijanian Ministry of Health.

The Apparatus World Cup in Doha on March 18-21 is also safe so far as Qatar did not impose any travel restriction for visitors from China. Getting to Doha might be a slight challenge, though, as Qatar Airways canceled all flights to and from China citing a lack of demand.

The All-Around World Cup in Tokyo is the last one in the series and will take place on April 4-5. At the moment, Japan only has travel restrictions for foreigners who visited Hubei province (the center of the epidemics) in the past 14 days or Chinese nationals holding passports issued in Hubei. If the conditions of the ban will not change, Chinese gymnasts should be able to compete there.