Following the establishment of a special task force related to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 10, FINA announced on March 12 the postponing of numerous events over the next month across all of its aquatics sports.

For artistic swimming and following the task force’s recommendations, FINA has decided to “postpone to a further date” the next three world series legs on the schedule: #2 in Hurghada (Mar 27 – 29), #3 in Budapest (Apr 9 – 11) and #4 in Kazan (Apr 17 – 19). The new dates of the competitions have not been determined.

The meet in Alexandroupoli, Greece from April 3 – 5 was cancelled by the Greek federation on March 10. The leg in Suzhou, China, originally scheduled for the end of April was cancelled at the beginning of February.

The Olympic Games Qualification Tournament set for April 30 – May 3 in Tokyo faces no changes from FINA’s side at the moment. It is at this time in the hands of the IOC and the organizing committee to decide what the next step is regarding this competition. The task force recommended that “IOC and Tokyo2020 make a decision in collaboration with [it] as necessary.”

FINA added: “At present, the Olympic Qualifying System for Tokyo 2020 remains unchanged. Should any changes become necessary, they will be determined in collaboration with the respective FINA Technical Committees and agreed with the IOC. Should changes be required, these will be communicated at the earliest available opportunity.”

The FINA COVID-19 task force will meet again on March 16 to further reassess the situation related to the impact of the virus on the FINA calendar.

Article by Christina Marmet 

Cover photo by Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia