Covid-19: Serious virus risk: Olympic qualification cancelled

The official cancellation of the World Cup regatta in Genoa in April on Wednesday afternoon was no longer a big surprise in view of the global spread of the coronavirus. Nevertheless, it is now causing the World Sailing Association and the German Sailing Association (DSV) to take considerable action, as the World Cup regatta was planned as the last major qualifying regatta for the 2020 Olympics. The chances of European, African and Asian sailors are affected. They must now hope for an adequate alternative qualification system or the organisation of an alternative regatta.

As World Sailing announced, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has already guaranteed the World Sailing Federation an extension of the qualification period until 30 June 2020. World Sailing intends to announce as soon as possible how the qualification opportunities for the now cancelled World Cup regatta will be created within a new framework. The challenge is huge at a time when a number of sailing nations are hardly sending their athletes on voyages any more. It involves not only travelling athletes, but also boats to be shipped. In addition, there is no unlimited number of international regattas in which all the sailors now affected by the cancellation could easily participate. It is possible that there will be class-specific solutions instead of a collective alternative. Finn sailor Max Kohlhoff said: "We are lucky that the Finn World Championship is taking place in May off Mallorca in a beautiful and fair sailing area. This could possibly be an alternative regatta." A press release from the World Sailing Federation initially stated: "World Sailing is now working closely with the IOC and the organisers to reschedule the remaining African, Asian and European qualifiers and ensure that all starting places can be filled."

The competitive sports department of the German Sailing Federation has already prepared for the new scenario. However, this is not just about the German 470 men and the Finn sailors, who had wanted to compete in Genoa in their disciplines for the last starting place for a European team at the 2020 Olympic Games and now have to wait for World Sailing to announce the alternative options - it is also about the three-part national Olympic elimination of the 470 women and the 470 men, whose third and final elimination regatta after the World Championships off Mallorca at the end of March and the Trofeo Princesa Sofia should have been the World Cup regatta in Genoa in the same area until the beginning of April. "We have developed a plan for this and found good solutions, which we will publish soon," DSV Sports Director Nadine Stegenwalner told YACHT online on the day the cancellation for the Genoa summit was announced.