The FINA Artistic Swimming World Series leg in Suzhou, China, scheduled for April 23 to 25 has been cancelled due to the coronavirus.

FINA’s statement stated: “Please kindly note that due to the current spread of coronavirus throughout China, and in consultation with the China Swimming Association and City of Suzhou, it has been decided to cancel this competition in order to ensure the health and safety of all participants.”

The sixth leg of the series was supposed to occur one week before the Olympic Qualification Tournament, held in Tokyo. This decision is unsurprising as FINA had already cancelled last week a diving world series competition set in Beijing from March 7 to 9, and had then mentioned that the ASWS one was also in question.

Since nobody is certain how long the outbreak will last, sporting organizers are under increased pressure to make decisions about upcoming events in China. The coronavirus has already wreaked havoc across many sports, including the postponing of the World Athletics Indoor Championships, scheduled for March in Nanjing, by a year until March 2021.

The Alpine Skiing World Cup races in Yanging this month, which were serving as the opening test event for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, were also cancelled. Other sports affected include boxing, football, wrestling, basketball, tennis and ice hockey.

The rest of the FINA ASWS calendar remains unchanged.

Article by Christina Marmet

Cover photo by Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia