Indian archery team withdraws participation from Asia Cup due to Coronavirus threat

What’s the story?

The Archery Association of India (AAI) on Thursday pulled out the Indian archery team from the upcoming Asia Cup world-ranking Tournament in Bangkok due to the coronavirus flare-up in Thailand.

In case you did not know

The 2020 Asia Cup world ranking Tournament (stage 1) is to be held in Thailand’s capital from March 8-15. This would have been India’s first international competition since its five-month ban was lifted in January.

Heart of the matter

As per ANI, here's what Gunjan Abrol, the AAI assistant secretary, wrote to World Archery secretary general Tom Dielen:

“After reviewing the current alarming situation on account of coronavirus and taking into consideration the travel advisories issued by SAI and IOC, Archery Association of India is worried about the health of our team and cannot take any risk under the circumstances.”

“Hence it has been decided to withdraw the team from the Asia Cup Stage 1 World Ranking Archery tournament to be held in Bangkok from March 7-15,” he wrote further.

India has been a regular at the event and was to participate with a second-string side this time around. However, the AAI, on the advice of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), pulled the plug on the country's participation.

What’s next?

A series of global sporting events have been canceled due to the Coronavirus outbreak and it remains to be seen what the status of the upcoming sporting tournaments will be like.