The Latest on the effects of the new coronavirus outbreak on sports
around the world:
The Atlanta Braves are marking what would have been opening day at
Trust Park with a virtual “At Home” opener.
The team will host a 90-minute, online celebration Friday that
features interviews with manager Brian Snitker, general manager
Alex Anthopoulos and star first baseman Freddie Freeman as well as
messages from other Braves players. Operatic tenor Timothy Miller
will perform the national anthem, joined by popular between-innings
features such as Beat The Freeze and the Home Depot Tool Race.
The “At Home” opener will serve as a lead-in to Fox Sports South
airing a replay of the Braves’ 2019 home opener against the Chicago
Cubs.
Like sports around the world, Major League Baseball is on hold
during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Braves are two-time defending National League East champions.
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Get ready for a full week of the Masters on television.
With this year’s tournament postponed because of the new
coronavirus, ESPN and CBS Sports will broadcast the final rounds of
some of the more significant Masters.
ESPN starts it off at 3 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday with the final
round from 1986. That’s arguably the most popular Masters of all,
when Jack Nicklaus shot 30 on the back nine to win his sixth green
jacket at age 46. ESPN will show the the 2012 Masters, when Bubba
Watson won his first green jacket, at 2 p.m. Thursday. That’s
followed by Tiger Woods’ record 12-shot victory in 1997 at 7:30
p.m. On Friday, ESPN features 2013, when Adam Scott won, at noon
and 2005, with Woods and his memorable chip-in on the 16th, at 6
p.m.
CBS takes over on the weekend, starting with a one-hour production
of 1975, when Nicklaus won over Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller.
That begins at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and is immediately followed by
2004, which was Phil Mickelson’s duel with Ernie Els.
On Sunday starting at 12:30 p.m., CBS will show the entire round
from last year, when Woods completed his comeback from back
surgeries to win his fifth green jacket.
Masters.com and TheMasters social media will complement the
broadcasts with content never before seen from famous final rounds.
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The Russian Sports Ministry says a major training base near Moscow
has shut down after a coach and an athlete tested “provisionally
positive” for the new coronavirus.
The ministry says the athlete was hospitalized and the coach
self-isolated at home. All training is shut down at the sprawling
Novogorsk base, a key focus of Russian Olympic preparations across
multiple sports, and it has been disinfected. Athletes have either
been isolated or sent home to self-isolate.
The ministry didn’t name the coach or athlete. However, the coach
was identified as artistic gymnastics head coach Andrei Rodionenko
in comments to state news agency Tass by Russian Rhythmic
Gymnastics Federation president Irina Viner-Usmanova.
Separately, a Russian boxing coach who was at last month’s Olympic
qualifying tournament in London said he tested positive. The
Russian Boxing Federation said Anton Kadushin had been at home
since returning from the competition.
Previously the Turkish federation said one of its boxers and one of
its coaches had tested positive after the tournament, which was cut
short due to the virus outbreak. The International Olympic
Committee said at the time it was “not possible to know the source
of infection.”
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The CEO of World TeamTennis says the league has sent $1,000 each to
about 60 players and coaches as a “gift” to help them deal with the
financial hardships presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
Carlos Silva said in a telephone interview Thursday that the
payments were not an advance of salary for the nine-team league,
which was founded by Billie Jean King in the 1970s.
Explained Silva: “It wasn’t so much about the money, but a way to
say, ‘Thank you,’ and just so they could use it for some rent or
some groceries or anything they might need.”
All professional tennis events have been postponed or canceled
until early July because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
There will be some tennis to watch on TV this weekend, though: A
WTT all-star event featuring 2017 U.S. Open runner-up Madison Keys
and other players will air Saturday on CBS. It was filmed March 1.
Silva said WTT is still planning to launch its three-week season on
July 12, but will continue to monitor the situation and offer
periodic updates.
Matches are slated to be held that day in Washington, Orlando, San
Diego and Springfield, Missouri.
That date also was supposed to be when the men’s final was played
at Wimbledon.
But the All England Club announced Wednesday that its Grand Slam
tournament would not be played this year.
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The New England Patriots’ private team plane is returning to Boston
from China carrying more than 1 million masks critical to health
care providers fighting to control the spread of the new
coronavirus.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Massachusetts Gov. Charlie
Baker secured the N95 masks but had no way of getting them to the
U.S.
Team owner Robert Kraft stepped in and offered to help. The plane,
a Boeing 767 painted in the team’s colors and logo, is usually used
to carry the team to and from NFL games. It is expected back in
Boston on Thursday.
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The World Games that were more than a year away have been delayed
to 2022 because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Olympic-style event for sports that are not on the Summer Games
program had been scheduled for July 15-25, 2021, in Birmingham,
Alabama. But those dates now overlap with the Tokyo Olympics, which
were delayed for a full year while the world deals with the
pandemic.
The International World Games Association and Birmingham Organizing
Committee announced Thursday that the 11th edition of the World
Games will now be held on July 7-17, 2022.
The World Games began in 1981 and are held every four years to
showcase disciplines that are not on the Olympic program, such as
sumo, floorball, billiards, lifesaving, orienteering, dance sport
and tug of war.
Birmingham won the right to stage the 2021 competition, beating out
Lima, Peru, and Ufa, Russia, to become the first U.S. host since
Santa Clara, California, for the inaugural World Games.
Birmingham had expected some 3,600 athletes from more than 100
nations to participate.
—
Iowa State coaches and other athletic department staff members are
getting pay cuts for one year to help offset lost revenue from the
coronavirus pandemic.
Athletic director Jaime Pollard wrote on the Cyclones’ website that
his department faces a $5 million shortfall this year because of
the cancellation of the NCAA and Big 12 men’s basketball
tournaments.
The payroll cut will save more than $3 million. There also will be
a temporary suspension of bonuses for coaches totaling another $1
million.
Previously announced increases in Cyclone Club annual giving levels
have been delayed, prices for season and individual game ticket
prices have been frozen for all sports and the deadline for booster
club donations and football season ticket renewals has been
extended to May 29.
—
The Belgian soccer league has become the first major European
competition to recommend ending its season with the current
standings declared final because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The league says Club Brugge would be awarded the title if the
advice is confirmed at a general assembly meeting on April 15.
Brugge would also qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Brugge is currently 15 points ahead of second-place Gent with one
game to go before the season-ending playoffs.
The league management board has agreed it is unclear when team
training could resume and says it is “very unlikely” any games with
fans attending could be played before June 30.
The league says even games in empty stadiums would put stress on
public health and security services dealing with the pandemic. It
agreed the risk of infecting players would also damage the
competition’s integrity.
—
The Senior PGA Championship in Michigan has been canceled.
The PGA of America says it based its decision on Michigan’s
stay-at-home order that was enacted March 23.
The Senior PGA in Benton Harbor, Michigan, was to be played May
21-24. It will be held next year at Southern Hills in Tulsa,
Oklahoma. It will return to Benton Harbor the following year.
—
World Athletics says it won’t clear any Russian athletes to compete
internationally amid the shutdown caused by the coronavirus
pandemic.
The governing body of track requires Russians to apply for
“authorized neutral athlete” status each year to compete outside
their home country. Russia has been suspended from World Athletics
since 2015 for widespread doping.
World Athletics spokeswoman Nicole Jeffery says in e-mailed
comments that “the ANA system only applies to international
competition, so until there is competition there is no need for any
athlete to apply.”
She adds that “for the next two months, at least, there is no
competition, so the system does not need to be active until we know
when the competition schedule can resume.”
World Athletics hasn’t decided how far in advance to open
applications once competitions resume. High jump world champion
Mariya Lasitskene and pole vault world champion Anzhelika Sidorova
are among those who need their status renewed from last year.
—
British Open organizers say postponement is an option for this
year’s tournament at Royal St. George’s because of the coronavirus
outbreak.
The R&A released a short statement in response to media speculation
about the staging of the event in July. Chief executive Martin
Slumbers says the “process is taking some time to resolve” because
of a range of external factors.
Slumbers says “we are well aware of the importance of being able to
give clear guidance to fans, players and everyone involved and are
working to resolve this as soon as we can.”
The 149th edition of the Open Championship is scheduled to take
place July 16-19. The last time the Open wasn’t played was in 1945
because of World War II.
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The French Grand Prix scheduled for May 17 in Le Mans has been
postponed, becoming the sixth MotoGP race to be called off because
of the coronavirus outbreak.
The motorcycling series has yet to start its season.
The season-opener in Qatar was canceled, the Thailand, Americas and
Argentina races were postponed to October-November, and the Spanish
MotoGP has yet to find new dates.
The next race at risk is the Italian MotoGP on May 31.
—
World Sailing has canceled the World Cup Series Final in Enoshima,
Japan, in June because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The regatta was to give valuable competition for the Olympic
classes just over a month before the start of the Tokyo Games.
The Olympics have been postponed to 2021.
World Sailing and Japanese officials were in talks to return to
Enoshima in 2021 before the rescheduled Olympics.
—
Brescia president Massimo Cellino says he will forfeit his team’s
remaining Serie A matches if the Italian soccer league resumes.
Brescia is the third-worst hit province in Italy with more than
8,500 coronavirus cases and more than 1,300 deaths.
In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, Cellino says “this
season doesn’t make sense anymore.”
He says “returning to activity is pure craziness. If they force us
to I am ready to not put out the team and lose the matches 3-0 by
default out of respect for the citizens of Brescia and their loved
ones who aren’t here anymore.”
Brescia is in last place in the league standings. The president of
Lazio recently accused Cellino of trying to avoid relegation.
Cellino says “I don’t care at all about relegation. So far we have
deserved it and I have my blame in that, too.”
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Potential hosts of soccer’s 2027 Asian Cup have been given more
time to enter the contest by the Asian Football Confederation.
The AFC says the March deadline to show interest was extended by
three months to June because many of its member federations have
been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Saudi Arabian soccer body said in February it wanted to host
the 24-team tournament.
China will host the 2023 edition. A return to western Asia is
possible after the United Arab Emirates staged the 2019 tournament.
The AFC is planning for a 2027 tournament but a FIFA task force
drafting a future calendar of matches and tournaments will likely
be asked to align continental championships. The European
Championship and South America’s Copa America are on track to kick
off in June 2028.
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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and
https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
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