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Virus threatens European sport
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SPORTING events across Europe continued to tumble as casualties of the rapidly-escalating foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain on Tuesday.
Fears about the disease spreading to Ireland forced the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) to switch the world cross country championships from Dublin to Brussels.
Equestrian events in France, Ireland and England were also called off.
But sport in Ireland has been hardest hit, with authorities there calling off all soccer, rugby and equestrian events — including those involving juniors — for the second successive weekend in a desperate attempt to prevent the spread of the disease to their shores.
Athletics became the latest sport to be affected by the crisis, with the Irish Athletic Association cancelling the world cross country championships set to take place in Dublin on March 24-25.
Dublin was expecting 1,500 competitors to attend the country's largest athletics event, which will now be switched to Brussels after agriculture ministers rejected safety measures taken by organizers to prevent the disease entering the city.
“The IAAF accepts the decision with regret but fully understands that the extraordinary circumstances left the IAA with no alternative,”the Monaco-based federation said in a statement.
Controversy surrounded the planned resumption of horse racing in England on Wednesday, with farmers arguing a week-long ban should continue until the spread of the disease has been halted.
The French have imposed a two-week suspension of all show jumping and three-day events, but in England, racing is set to resume despite severe criticism.
The UK's National Farmers Union (NFU) appealed on Tuesday for the horse racing community to hold off for another week.
“I in no way underestimate the degree of sacrifice involved, but farmers are extremely concerned about the possible spread of foot-and-mouth,” NFU President Ben Gill said in a statement.
Although meetings at Catterick, Bangor, Hereford, Chepstow, Carlisle and Towcester this week have already been cancelled, others across the country are set to proceed.
Organizers of the Cheltenham Festival, the three-day National Hunt event set to start on March 13, are pressing ahead with plans to stage the festival after a nearby farm was cleared of a suspected case.
But their decision has attracted criticism from inside the racing world, with former trainer Jenny Pitman in favour of a prolonged ban on all racing.
“I really think it is a very unwise decision to have racing continue at this time,”she told the BBC.
“If one person leaves Cheltenham with contamination on his or her clothing, they could go back to their area and wipe out someone's livelihood.”
While most sports have agreed to postpone events on the advice of their government, ice hockey in Northern Ireland has refused to shut down.
Ian Taylor, chief executive of the British Superleague, rejected calls from the Northern Ireland executive on Tuesday to postpone matches at Belfast's Odyssey Arena.
He was adamant that Saturday's Challenge Cup final between Ayr and Sheffield would go ahead despite First Minister David Trimble urging him to think again.
“The final will go ahead unless the UK Government tells us it shouldn't,”he told the BBC. “Did Mr Trimble call on Manchester United to call off their match last week?”
Thousands of fans from Northern Ireland travelled over for that game.
The disease is fatal to livestock and can be carried by humans or animals, or on the wind. (SD-Agencies)
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