The news comes in the wake of growing concern over whether the 2020 Summer Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan this summer.
According to World Athletics, the first three meets of the 2020 Wanda Diamond League season, scheduled for April 17 in Qatar and May 9 and 16, 2020 in China, cannot be held as planned.
“This decision was made in close consultation with organising committees, local authorities and sports governing bodies,” World Athletics said in a statement.
“It is forbidden to enter Qatar from a number of countries and the government in Doha has suspended all national and international events for a period of 30 days.
While the number of new infections is now decreasing in China, the fact remains that preparations for the meetings have been set back by several weeks and the closed borders and travel restrictions make it impossible to organise international top-level competitions.”
The governing body said the current plan is to stage the Shanghai event on August 13 while new dates for Doha and the second meeting in China remain to be announced.
It could be that they will be held after the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich from September 9-11, where the Diamond League Champions will be crowned, should the global situation allow.
With approximately six months to go before the showpiece, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the Coronavirus a global health emergency. The epicenter of the outbreak is the Chinese City of Wuhan where over 10,000 people have been infected. The virus has also spread to 20 other countries, including Japan, where 17 people have been infected.
The Tokyo Olympic organisers have, however, insisted that having been in contact with the WHO and insisted they were “not considering” canceling the Olympics and Paralympics. The IOC has revealed that various countermeasures were already being examined.
“Countermeasures against infectious diseases constitute an important part of Tokyo 2020’s plans to host a safe and secure Games,” the IOC said in a statement.
“Tokyo 2020 will continue to collaborate with all relevant organisations which carefully monitor any incidence of infectious diseases and will review any countermeasures.”
The outbreak has already affected other scheduled competitions, including the Olympic qualifying tournament in China. Women’s football has been moved to Australia and basketball to Serbia. The Asian-Oceania boxing qualifiers have been moved to Jordan. The World Indoor Championships, which were to have been held in Nanjing in March, were postponed for a year.
The pair clocked a time of 1:01.23 in their first heat then returned to clock 1:01.35 in the second for a combined time of 2:02.58, which left them last.
On Tuesday, Stephens and Turgott returned for heat 3 and needed to finish in the top 20 to advance to the medal round.
However, after the third heat, they failed to improve their position in the standings, thus ending the quest for a medal. Their final time after three heats was 3:04.12.
The Trinidadian team of Axel Brown and Andre Marcano sat 27th after the two heats with a time of 2:01.70. They eventually fell back a place on Tuesday after heat three, finishing with a time of 3:02.56.
The German team of Francesco Friedreich and Thorsten Margis was the fastest after the first two heats, with a time of 1:58.38, and eventually secured gold in the event with a time of 3:56.89.
Germany secured a historic treble with Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer finishing second in 3:57.38 and Christoph Hafer and Mathias Sommer finishing third in 3:58.58.
Elsewhere on Monday, Jamaican Alpine Skier Benjamin Alexander finished 46th overall in the Men’s Giant Slalom with a time of 3:18.52.
Haiti’s Richardson Viano also competed in the Men’s Giant Slalom but failed to finish.
The gold medal in the event was won by Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt in 2:09.35 while silver was taken by Slovenia’s Zan Kranjek in 2:09.54 and bronze by Mathieu Faivre of France in 2:10.69.
Thomas-Dodd, the only Caribbean representative in action on the morning session, launched the instrument to a best mark of 19.36m, comfortably clearing the automatic qualifying standard of 19.10m.
The 30-year-old, who copped silver in Doha in 2019, seems poised to replicate or even better that feat, provided she puts together a good series of throws in the final scheduled for the evening session at 1:15pm Jamaica time.
This, as she had to recover from a sluggish start where she opened with 17.75m and 18.77m, before achieving the qualifying mark.
To medal, Thomas-Dodd will need to possibly match or better her 19.77m National Record, as the final includes reigning champion American Chase Ealy, as well as last year’s silver medallist and Olympic Champion, Lijao Gong of China.
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