AFI postponed Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships

The competition committee of Athletics Federation of India on Monday decided to postpone the 24th Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships 2020 due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

The prestigious Federation Cup was scheduled to be held from April 10-13 in Punjab's Patiala at Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre.

Announcing the decision, Adille J Sumariwalla, AFI President said, "Looking at the present situation in the country and around the world, hosting any competition is difficult. Health and safety of everyone comes first and we can resume the competitions once things start getting better. As of now, we have not discussed what will be the new dates for Indian Grand Prix competitions and Federation Cup."

Earlier, AFI also had to postpone its season opener Indian Grand Prix (IGP) series which was scheduled to be held at three different venues- Patiala (March 20), Sangrur (March 25) and Delhi (March 29).

A total of 415 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in India so far including 23 cured and 7 deaths, Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry said on Monday.

He added that a "complete lockdown has been announced in 19 states and union territories. Some parts of 6 states and union territories have been kept under lockdown."

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General Balram Bhargava said that 12 laboratory chains have been registered and they have started functioning.

"12 laboratory chains have been registered and they have started functioning. These 12 have 15,000 collection centres across the country," he said.