Indian archery team withdraws from Asia Cup due to coronavirus

The Archery Association of India (AAI) on Thursday said it will not send their team for the upcoming Asia Cup world ranking tournament in Bangkok due to the coronavirus threat there.

"We have already informed World Archery via a letter that we won't be taking part in the meet. This is not the right time to visit Thailand with the outbreak of coronavirus," AAI assistant secretary Gunjan Abrol told IANS.

The season-opening stage 1 tournament is slated to be held in Bangkok, Thailand from March 8 to 15. "We will see what happens in the future but at the moment we cannot risk going there," he added.

This would have been India's first international competition since their return from a five-month suspension.

The annual motorsports event MotoGP 2020 scheduled for March 20-22 in Thailand's northeastern province of Buriram has also been postponed indefinitely due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus, Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul had said on Monday.

The Thailand LPGA golf tournament was dropped from the schedule last month.

The number of global coronavirus cases have reached more than 90,0000 with over 3,000 deaths reported across the world so far. IANS