The CrossFit Italian Showdown will take place as an online competition to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, the Sanctional announced earlier today.
“At this stage there is no guarantee that the situation will change soon, so there is no reason to wait any longer to make a decision. Running the Italian Showdown in April is not an option, not even postponing it to July. Health comes first,” event organisers issued on a press release.
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The Italian government has placed the entire country on lockdown, established travel restrictions and banned public gatherings in a bid to stop the spread of the virus.
“We are responsible for the safety of all the participants, but we feel also obliged to guarantee the right to compete to all the athletes in search of the invite to the 2020 CrossFit Games,” the Italian Showdown wrote.
Therefore, with the help of CrossFit HQ, it was decided the competition would go ahead, but it’d be held online.
“All the registered athletes will be able to participate without traveling, stay safe and compete for the invite to the Games. The Italian invite won’t be wasted and all the podium finishers of each age division will be rewarded,” organisers wrote.
The live edition of the Italian Showdown will still take place, with the same format and in the same location, once the situation becomes safer later in the year. All registered athletes will retain their right to compete, and their entries will be deferred free of charge.
This deferral also applies to spectator tickets, and the Sanctional announced that, thanks to the collaboration with Promhotels Riccione, the competition’s partner hotels guarantee the cancellation of the bookings with no penalty.
Details about the online competition will be released shortly.
You can read the full CrossFit Italian Showdown coronavirus update here.
UPDATE: CrossFit HQ has reexamined this developing situation and, in the absence of a live competition, will not be extending CrossFit Games invites based on the results of the on line challenge previously agreed.
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Yesterday, Ministers in Berlin cancelled cultural gatherings of over 500 people and all events with more than 1,000 participants until mid-April. This decision has also had an impact on the CrossFit German Throwdown, which has now officially been postponed.
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