JOHANNESBURG – Athletics SA (ASA) on Wednesday welcomed the postponement of the World Athletics Under-20 Championships due to the spread of Covid-19.
The event was postponed on Tuesday as the number of coronavirus global infections continued to rise rapidly. The World Athletics Under-20 Championships were scheduled to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from July 7 to 12.
The Tokyo Olympics were also postponed on Tuesday, which were originally scheduled for July 24 to August 9.
"It is a prudent decision by World Athletics to postpone the championship given the global panic as a result of the spread of Covid-19," said ASA president, Aleck Skhosana. "We cannot act normal when the situation around all of us is abnormal.
"We are going into a lockdown as a nation for the next 21 days as declared by the state President of the Republic of South Africa. That means our athletes too like every community must abide and fully comply with the declaration of the National State of Disaster which has been escalated to a lockdown.
"The benefit of complying will be huge for our athletes and membership as this will decrease the spread of virus from one place to another and from person to the other. We urge everyone to stay at home and travel when it is absolute necessary and to do so within the guideline stipulated by the state President.
“We therefore discourage long runs and other forms of running outside your area and home. We pray that we shall all be safe and the virus shall come to pass.
“We are all affected in one way or the other and we call upon our athletes, coaches, administrators, support teams, staff and colleagues around Africa and worldwide, to unite in fighting the virus by doing what our governments advices us to do."