Canada’s athletics governing body, Athletics Canada has defended her decision to withdraw from yesterday’s (October 17) World Athletics Half Marathon which took place in Gdynia, Poland. The body in a statement made available to the media said with the raging second wave of Covid-19, she could not afford to put her athletes, coaches and volunteers at risk. Canada was billed to be represented by five athletes. Athletics Canada in her official statement declared…”Poland has recently seen sharp increases in cases of COVID-19. After a long and detailed internal discussion, Athletics Canada has decided not to send a team.
There are significant and increasing COVID related risks to attending this event, as an organization we simply cannot justify putting our athletes, coaches and staff in harm’s way.” “This was a very difficult decision, but we think it is in the best interests of the athletes and the team staff,” said Simon Nathan, Athletics Canada’s High Performance Director. “We know that this is disappointing news, but we have made this decision with our team’s health and safety at heart…we saw too many risks that nobody could be expected to control.
When we considered the risks associated with flying and transfers within airports, with the athletes being in publicly-accessed common areas like hotel lobbies and common dining areas, and the unknown of individuals’ compliance to safe protocols, we felt it was prudent not to expose our team to those risks,” said Dr. Paddy McCluskey, Athletics Canada’s Chief Medical Officer.The event had originally been scheduled for March 29 but was rescheduled to October 17.Canada was to be represented by athletes Rachel Cliff, Justin Kent, Ben Preisner, Philippe Parrot-Migas and Thomas Toth
