According to today's Daily Telegraph ( UK daily paper ) There is a 90% chance of the championships being postponed. This was a view expressed by an IBF 'insider'. The article mentions that IBF have stopped all planned expenditure on the event. The paper quotes Lindsey Bell, the spokesman for IBF as saying that the decision to postpone will be taken in the next 24 hours. The BAof E response from Steve Baddeley was that they had taken government advice and so far no one has suggested that BAofE should postpone.
Delay it Since SARS is still at its peak and the test methodology is still very primitive, WC should be delay. After all, life is still bigger than sports. China has such a big delegates participating in WC and some of them are from the SARS region which potentially pose some threat to the community and inject fear to players participating in WC. IBF should call off the meet in May, in my opinion.
in principle i agree with han, as life is bigger than sport, and some of the countries suffering, malaysia,china,hong kong, and other asian countries are trying and to different levels of sucess are doing so. to then have all the players,coaches come to another,largley unaffected countryd would i believe be fairly silly, as the players and coaches would surely be fairly safe as they are healthy and strong.however they could be carrying the disease in some way. MOre important is the press. They are reporting on the disease and in contact with people infected or colleagues working with infected parties. The press from asian countries wouldcary the largest threat when players come to the second largestcity in the centre of england,the possibility of spread is high. how is it spread-close contact with people in closed spaces.....press conferences, 2000 people packed into a closed arena,queing to get in. However the logistical side of things are more complacated and you cannot say simply,come back in one month-the nia may not be free that week, national authorities will have booked hotels and planes which to poorer countries would be disastrous. ticket distrubution for a 6 day event would be difficult,with people possibly travelling from afar wasting airfares and other travel and administration fares. grants recieved from the government are wasted and the reputation of the sport tarnished. postponement would affect sponsorship,not only for this wc but the tournaments post wc as they would also have to be postponed. It is a difficult decision which cannot be taken too lightly by anyone involved.it can go ahead,i believe but very tight medical measures must be put in place and plenty of thought about seemingly mundane things such as press conferences.
James is correct. If there is a postponement then the tournament will not take place for at least another 12 months maybe longer.
Re: Delay it Disagree. Anybody can be a "potential" threat. You could hypothesize a multiple chain of transmission and that would still be a potential threat. You just have to have the adequate measures in place. Things like screening temp, health checks. Remember, SARS isn't something that is going to jump across 5 metres. If it was, we would be seeing a lot more transmission to people in airplanes, and that is plainly something that hasn't happened.
Apparently no objection from Denmark Kenneth Jonassen is quoted in Danish newspapers today saying that he thinks a postponement could be a good idea. Peter Gade is quoted for saying that he thinks the World Championships should be postponed if the organizers are adviced to do so by the authorities. So apparently, even though the Danish players - like everyone else - must have been training very hard for this event, they still seem to understand.
