Coronavirus effect: Asian squash tournaments in Malaysia, China postponed, fresh dates later

Chennai: Two squash events – the Asian Team Championships in Malaysia and the Asian Junior Individual Championships in China – have been postponed due to coronavirus outbreak. [caption id=“attachment_4802031” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative image. AFP[/caption] The Asian Team Championships was scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur from 25 to 29 March, while the Asian Junior Individual Championship was to be staged in Quingdao, China from 29 June to 3 July. The decision was taken at the Annual General Meeting of the Asian Squash Federation. The ASF said that fresh dates for both the events will be announced later. “In view of current situation of COVID-19 across the globe and recent assessment of World Health Organisation on the risk of spread and impact of coronavirus as very high at global level, the ASF EXCO, having discussed with hosting nations, decided to postpone the 20th Asian Team Championships, the 40th ASF’s AGM as well as the 27th Asian Junior Individual Championships to prevent the risk of spread,” the ASF said. “When the new dates of the events are confirmed, we will inform all members immediately,” ASF administrative manager Jane Li said in a statement. The two tournaments are the latest sporting event to be hit by the deadly coronavirus , which has claimed more than 3,000 lives and infected 89,000 people across the world. Formula One’s Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai on 19 April , Asian Boxing Qualifiers , World Table Tennis Championships to be held in South Korea from 22-29 March, Singapore and Hong Kong events in the World Rugby Sevens Series are some of the global sporting events which have been postponed or shifted due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament, which was scheduled to be held in Ipoh, Malaysia from 11 to 18 April, has also been affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak as it has been rescheduled to 24 September to 3 October.