Wilson calls for postponement of Tokyo Games

Head coach of the Sprintec Track Club Maurice Wilson has been added to the growing list of sporting stakeholders who are calling for the Olympic Games this summer to be postponed due to the Covid 19 coronavirus outbreak. Wilson says staging the Olympic Games in July would be unwise.

“It is obvious that most of the countries in Europe are suffering from the virus and a lot of athletes’ preparations have been hampered. It would not be wise in my opinion for the meet to be held in July. It’s going to take at least 4–5 weeks for the athletes to get themselves ready again and so it’s going to be very difficult for them to perform at their highest level,” he reasoned.

Wilson has also expressed concern for the athletes who have been impacted economically since the start of the year.

“The fallout started from January when athletes were preparing themselves for the World Indoor Championships. They would have travelled; they would have attended meets trying to attain the qualifying standards and the meet (World Indoors) was cancelled. So all of that money in terms of them promoting themselves would have been lost. A lot of these athletes would have incurred bills coming over from last year into this year,” said Wilson.