Wuhan virus: Growing concerns over fallout hit lengthening list of sports events
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China's Li Mengwen vying for the ball with Chinese Taipei's Chen Yen-ping in their East Asian Football Federation Championship match in Busan on Dec 17, 2019. She is one of four players hit by the virus controls and will miss the Olympic qualifiers.
PHOTO: AFP
(REUTERS) - The list of international sporting events affected by a new virus outbreak in China grew on Wednesday (Jan 29), with skiing World Cup races in Yanqing cancelled and Olympic women's football in Australia in doubt on concerns about athletes' safety.
Badminton, tennis and basketball were among other sports whose governing bodies were rearranging events, weighing possible changes or monitoring the implications of the outbreak.
Skiing's governing body FIS said it took the "difficult decision" along with local organisers to postpone the Feb 15-16 Alpine Ski World Cup - the first official test event for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
"Although the risk level in Yanqing is low, the health and welfare of athletes and all participants must take priority," FIS president Gian Franco Kasper said.
FIS will announce the rescheduling of the cancelled races at a later date.
Earlier, the Asian Football Confederation said home matches of the four Chinese clubs on the first three match days of the AFC Champions League will be rescheduled and played away by swopping the order with their opponents.
The Chinese Football Association said four players - Wang Shuang, Yao Wei, Lyu Yueyun and Li Mengwen - would miss next week's Olympic women's qualifying tournament in Sydney after being affected by China's coronavirus control.
China last week withdrew as hosts of the four-nation event, which also features Australia, Taiwan and Thailand, before the AFC moved the matches to Sydney.
But the event suffered another blow when Australia's football federation said it would postpone ticket sales while awaiting advice from the authorities.
The Chinese team, scheduled to play their first match on Feb 3, were told to remain in their hotel rooms until Feb 5 after arriving in Brisbane on Jan 29.
The International Tennis Federation, meanwhile, has moved the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Group I event - featuring teams from China, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, South Korea and Uzbekistan - out of Dongguan to Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana) in Kazakhstan.
But Kazakhstan has since declined to serve as a substitute host for the Feb 4-8 event after suspending all passenger travel to and from China.
Badminton's governing body BWF said that it would monitor implications related to the outbreak and that no decision had been made on the Feb 25-March 1 China Masters in Lingshui.
And the organisers of the Formula E championship confirmed that they are working closely with the local authorities in Hainan province ahead of the race in Sanya scheduled for March 21.
The International Olympic Committee had last week announced Jordan as hosts of the 2020 Olympics boxing qualifiers for Asia and Oceania after the event in Wuhan was cancelled.
A Feb 6-9 women's Olympic basketball qualifying tournament was moved from Foshan, Guangdong to Belgrade while a Feb 21-23 X-Games event in Zhangjiakou was postponed.
The virus outbreak has killed over 130 people with almost 6,000 others affected by the flu-like virus that emerged late last year in Wuhan in central Hubei province.
