Coronavirus: SailGP suspends all racing in 2020
Monday 4 May 2020 13:21, UK
SailGP has announced that it has suspended the remainder of the 2020 season, with all Season 2 events set to be rescheduled for 2021.
Two of the four impacted events now have new dates for 2021 - San Francisco on April 17-18 and New York on June 4-5.
SailGP also intends to return to the UK and Denmark during the rescheduled Season 2, replacing racing previously planned for August 14-15 and September 11-12 of this year.
Season 2 is set to be expanded from five to a minimum of seven events during the year-long period beginning in April 2021, spanning to the early months of 2022. Results from 2020 Sydney SailGP - the first and only completed event of the year which was won by Ben Ainslie and the British team - will be null and void.
"With a continued emphasis on protecting the health and safety of its national teams, global staff, partners and event communities, SailGP has determined that its racing must remain suspended for the remainder of 2020," read a statement.
SailGP CEO Sir Russell Coutts added: "This terrible pandemic has led to the tragic and ongoing loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, and first and foremost, our thoughts go out to those victims, and their grieving families and friends.
"The global nature of our league is one of our strongest characteristics, as we bring together top talent from all over the world to both organise and compete in a new form of professional racing. As we face this health emergency, our geographic diversity unfortunately becomes a potential liability both to ourselves and those around us.
"Our focus must necessarily shift to returning at a time when our events do not present undue internal or external risk."
