Coronavirus crisis: Olympic boxing qualifiers moved to Jordan from Wuhan

By Dang Khoa   February 2, 2020 | 03:08 am PT
Coronavirus crisis: Olympic boxing qualifiers moved to Jordan from Wuhan
Medal designs for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Photo courtesy of tokyo2020.org.
The new coronavirus epidemic has forced organizers to relocate the 2020 Olympic boxing qualifiers for Asia and Oceania from China's Wuhan to Jordan.

The Vietnamese women's boxing team were to have departed for China's Wuhan City on January 31 to prepare for the qualifiers, but the plan was shelved because the destination was the epicenter of the new virus outbreak.

With the death toll in China from the virus increasing to 304 and the number of infections rising to more than 14,500, the International Olympic Committee's Boxing Taskforce has relocated the event while keeping the dates, March 3 to 11, unchanged.

The new venue will be the Prince Hamza Arena in Al-Hussein Youth City, Amman.

Vietnamese fighters had gone to Thailand for a month of training and they will continue it in Vietnam.

The nation's boxers hope to earn at least one ticket to participate in the Olympics held in Tokyo later this year (July 24 to August 9).

Hopes are particularly high over the chances of female boxer Nguyen Thi Huong, who bagged a bronze medal at the 2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships held in Russia.

Only four Vietnamese athletes - one swimmer, one gymnast and two archers - have so far qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Vietnam aims to have 20 athletes or teams competing in the event.

 
 
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