A wave of cancellation of sporting events hit the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the latest developments have been the cancellation of the rest of the NCAA gymnastics season. While the Russian government seems to still have a relatively lax attitude towards the virus and the official statistics claims that there are only 34 cases of the virus in the country at the moment, some sports organizations started cancelling internal competitions or holding them without spectators. You would expect a similar reactions from the Artistic Gymnastics Federation, especially after they decided to forgo Olympic qualification and withdraw from two World Cups, but for now, the WAG Russian Championships on March 20-26 are still expected to take place and the organizers plan to allow spectators. Not that there are normally many spectators at the competitions in Penza.
Valery Starkin, the president of the Penza Gymnastics Federation, said to TASS:
“We plan on holding the Women’s Russian Artistic Gymnastics Championships as usual, we have not gotten any directives yet, and there were no cases of the coronavirus in Penza anyway. Normally, no more than 1000 spectators attend our competitions, so a big crowd is not expected. But if there will be a directive, we will hold the championships without spectators. Of course, we are taking measures against the coronavirus.”
Russia also sent a delegation to the Baku World Cup taking place this weekend (stream links: Saturday, Sunday). Some federations or individual gymnasts from other countries decided to withdraw from the competition – the Hungarian Gymnastics Federation withdrew before the start of the competition. US Colin Van Wicklen decided not to go to Baku either, while the rest of the US delegation left Baku after the announcement that the travel to US would be suspended shortly. Most of the Dutch delegation (except for Epke Zonderland) left the competition after they learned that Spain’s Raderley Zapata developed a fever and was being tested for the coronavirus. Zapara later tested negative.
The Israeli delegation decided to participate, despite facing 14-day quarantine once they return, as Israel instituted a mandatory quarantine for all citizens arriving from abroad. That means Andrey Medvedev and Alexander Myakinin will not be able to train for two weeks after coming home. However, this will be the last competition for Israelis for the time being as yesterday, the Israeli Gymnastics Federation announced that all internal competitions and travel to international events are canceled.
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