European Climbing Championships and Boulder World Cup postponed

Following its decision to reschedule the start of the Lead World Cup 2020 and the Asian Championships in China last month, the IFSC (International Federation of Sport Climbing) has now announced that due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic it is postponing the start of the Boulder World Cup, the European Youth Cup and also the European Championsips in Moscow, from late March to mid-June. The Championships are of particular importance as they are the qualification event for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, providing a last opportunity for two European athletes to qualify for the Olympics.

In its statement the IFSC explained that is has been decided to:

• Postpone the IFSC European Championships in Moscow (RUS), initially scheduled to take place from March 20 to 27; the competition is now scheduled from June 15 to 22
• Postpone the IFSC World Cup in Meiringen (SUI), initially scheduled to take place from April 3 to 4, and the IFSC World Cup in Seoul (KOR), initially scheduled to take place from May 8 to 10; both competitions will likely be held between September and October
• Postpone the circuit of IFSC Europe cups and IFSC Europe youth cups that were scheduled to take place in April and May; the IFSC Europe Sport Department is working closely with each event organiser in order to establish a new calendar for the competitions affected by this issue

The Tokyo 2020 summer Olympic Games are scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August in Japan and although questions have been raised about the viability of the Games in the light of the recent Covid-19 Coronavirus developments, the International Olympic Committee has repeatedly insisted they will go ahead as planned.