2020 Tokyo Olympics Postponed Due To Coronavirus

The Games have been postponed until next year due to the ongoing worldwide Coronavirus pandemic

2020 Tokyo Olympics Postponed Due To Coronavirus

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be postponed until the summer of next year due to the Coronavirus, it has emerged.

Japan's Prime Minster Shinzo Abe asked the Games to be postponed for the first time in their 124-year history in a phonecall with IOC President Thomas Bach.

"After his telephone talks with IOC President Bach, PM Abe spoke to the press and explained that the two have agreed that the Tokyo Olympic Games would not be cancelled, and the games will be held by the summer of 2021," the PM's Office of Japan wrote on social media.

Golf was due to make its second appearance in the Games since 1904, after it returned at Rio 2016 for the first time in 112 years.

The men's competition was scheduled to take place from 30th July-2nd August and the women's event was set for 5th-8th August, both at Kasumigaseki Golf Club.

Great Britain's Justin Rose won the Gold Medal in the men's competition in Rio with Henrik Stenson winning Silver for Sweden and Matt Kuchar picking up Bronze for the USA.

In the women's event, Inbee Park won Gold for South Korea, Lydia Ko won Silver for New Zealand and Shanshan Feng won Bronze for China.

This is yet another big golf event postponed after The Masters and USPGA Championship were pushed back earlier this month.

It could mean that the Ryder Cup organisers will be more eager for the match to go ahead after an insider suggested to the Telegraph that commercial deals are much harder to come by during an Olympic year.

There was talk of the Ryder Cup being postponed too, but organisers called the reports "innacurate."

This could also be good news for the British Masters, which was due to take place the same week as the men's competition.

It also gives the USPGA an opportunity to take up that spot in the calendar, after the PGA of America said that it hoped the tournament could be played later in the summer.

The US Open could be the next big golf event postponed, and it likely will, as New York is the hardest-hit state in the USA with well over 20,000 cases of Covid-19 as things stand.

The tournament is due to take place at Winged Foot, just north of New York City, from 18th-21st June.

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