Beach volleyball event in China postponed due to coronavirus

(Reuters) – A beach volleyball tournament due to be held in Yangzhou, China has been postponed until after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) said on Monday.

The tournament, which was due to be held from April 22 to 26, joins a long list of sporting events that have been canceled or postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak in China, which has killed more than 1,700 people.

“The health and wellbeing of our athletes, officials and fans is our number one priority and so it was mutually decided that postponing the event to a later date was in the best interests of everyone involved,” the FIVB, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, said in a statement.

Earlier on Monday, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said it was relocating the Asian Championships scheduled to take place in Kazakhstan to neighboring Uzbekistan due to the outbreak.

Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Hugh Lawson

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source: reuters.com