THE Taekwondo Asian Qualification Tournament for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was officially scrapped on Friday owing to the outbreak of the coronavirus in China.
Philippine Taekwondo Association (PTA) chairman for regional affairs Stephen Fernandez confirmed organizers decided not to push through with the April 10-11 event set in the city of Wuxi in the southern Jiangsu province due to the epidemic.
“China has cancelled the hosting of the Asian qualifiers due to the nCov virus,” said Fernandez after formally receiving the communique.
This is the second Olympic qualifier to be cancelled in China due to the epidemic.
The Asia-Oceania Boxing Olympic qualifying tournament slated Feb. 3 to 14 was earlier called off as it was supposed to be held in Wuhan, which was the center of the coronavirus outbreak.
The meet has since been moved to Amman, Jordan from March 3 to 11.
The World Taekwondo Asia, according to Fernandez, is now doing the same thing for its Olympic qualifier.
“It (WTA) has opened the hosting and bidding for the qualifiers to interested countries,” said Fernandez, adding the projected date of the event remains on the same date in April.
Unlike the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) which bid to stage the qualifiers here, Fernandez said the PTA is not exactly keen on the idea given the short time frame and logistics needed to host such meet.
The federation is looking to send half of the eight gold medalists in the last Southeast Asian Games in the qualification tournament in the hope of having one or two of them clinch a berth in the Tokyo Olympics set this coming August.
The four SEA Games gold winners were Pauline Lopez, Samuel Morrison, Dave Cea, and Kurt Bryan Barbosa.
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