COVID-19: Diamond League releases new provisional 2020 calendar

The Diamond League has introduced a shortened, provisional calendar for this 12 months in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the brand new calendar, there can be no level system, no general league winners this 12 months and the ultimate in Zurich won’t be held. The new calendar will start with the Monaco assembly on August 14 and proceed by till mid-October to adapt the season within the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The final assembly of the season can be held on October 17 in China with the venue to be introduced later.

“The 2020 Wanda Diamond League will not be a structured series of events leading to a final as is usually the case. Given the current discrepancies in training and travel opportunities, it would be impossible to ensure a level playing field and a fair qualification system during 2020.

“Athletes will therefore not earn Diamond League points this season, and there will not be a single, 24-discipline final in Zurich as originally planned,” Diamond League introduced on its web site on Tuesday.

The initially 14-leg competitors has been reduce to 11 conferences. Apart from the Diamond League last as a consequence of be staged from September 9 to 11, the Rabat and London conferences can even be cancelled.

The 2020 Diamond League sequence had been deliberate to begin on April 17 in Doha, however was compelled to droop a variety of its conferences on account of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic which has wreaked havoc internationally.

World Athletics has additionally requested every assembly organisers to overview and announce the format of the competitors and which disciplines are included two months earlier than the occasion takes place in order that athletes could have essential time to organize for competitors. It has additionally inspired assembly organisers to “stage their events in innovative, alternative formats and/or under social distancing regulations”.