EUROPEAN ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS CANCELLED
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2020 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - Used with permission.

(23-Apr) -- The last major athletics championships which was still on the global calendar for 2020, the European Athletics Championships, has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis.  The championships were scheduled for August 25 - 30 at Charlety Stadium in Paris.

The decision to cancel the championships was made today by the Paris 2020 Local Organizing Committee (LOC) and Fédération Française d'Athlétisme (FFA) at an extraordinary LOC executive committee meeting.  The decision to cancel was driven by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the associated risks linked to the current situation, which are far from being under control, as well as the existing ban on mass gatherings in France.

"It is with great regret that we announce the cancellation of the Paris 2020 European Athletics Championships," said interim European Athletics president Dobromir Karamarinov through a statement.  "We had hoped in these troubled times to offer European athletes a major event to aim for at the end of this summer. Unfortunately, today we were informed by the LOC and French athletics federation that, after discussions with the relevant French national and local public health and safety authorities, they were no longer able to proceed with delivering the championships this August and were forced to cancel the event."

The European Athletics Championships were held every four years from 1974 through 2014, then every two years after that.  During Olympic years, the program is slightly different and a half-marathon is held instead of a marathon.

PHOTO: Charlety Stadium (photo courtesy of European Athletics)