Coronavirus impacts Tokyo 2020 qualifier

Before athletes can compete at the Olympic Games, their country must meet a competitive standard by winning one of the quota slots that are allotted for each event. For the Sailing Program at Tokyo 2020, that process is now being impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.

Viewed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as representing a “very grave threat” for the world, the UN health agency warns that the virus should be treated as “public enemy number one” — going so far as to say it is a bigger threat than terrorism.

The latest ramifications of this deadly disease, which originated in China, has been to postpone the 2020 49erFX Asian Championship and 2020 Nacra 17 Asian Championship which were due to be held in Hainan and Shanghai, China.

As these events were to be the Women’s Skiff and Mixed Multihull Asian Continental Qualification Events for Tokyo 2020, this will now occur at the 2020 Hempel World Cup Series event on April 12-19 in Genoa, Italy.

The Hempel World Cup Series Genoa event will also act as the final opportunity for European sailors to qualify for Tokyo 2020.

The latest version of the qualification system and results from all Qualification Events are available at www.sailing.org/tokyo2020.php.

TOKYO 2020 Sailing Program
Men’s One Person Dinghy – Laser
Women’s One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial
Men’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Women’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Men’s Skiff – 49er
Women’s Skiff – 49erFx
Men’s One Person Dinghy Heavy – Finn
Men’s Windsurfing – RS:X
Women’s Windsurfing – RS:X
Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17

Olympic schedule: July 24 – Aug 9
Sailing schedule: July 26 – Aug 6
Details: https://tokyo2020.org/en/games/schedule/olympic/