Several sports competitions to resume simultaneously in Romania

Minister for Youth and Sport Ionut Stroe told AGERPRES on Thursday that there will not be just one sport where competitions will be resumed in the first phase, but several, having so far received requests for football, cycling, motoring and motorcycling. "There will be more sports that will resume their competitions as soon as we have a general framework ready, as happened with the athletes' training framework. I can say that on June 1 we will be able to have this general framework, so that they have two weeks to prepare for resumption. I can say that football, cycling, motoring competitions are petitioning for a restart and I have heard of some competitions of motorcycling, so it is about several sports that have concrete data for competitions. We are working on a framework that we could adjust for each sport, but it will be a general framework, whichever sport fits into it can restart competitions - as we did with the training. I think that once we create the legal framework, more sports will meet the criteria for resuming competitions," said Stroe. However, he specified that the resumption of sports competitions depends on the developments in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic: "Everything depends on the developments in the pandemic, so the scenario of starting the competitions will follow the training one; it is absolutely normal for this to happen, it is natural. I think we can have the framework to be implemented in two weeks' time, if all goes well." All sports competitions in Romania were discontinued after the first cases of COVID-19 infection and the lockdown that ensued. As of May 15, the first athletes having resumed training in a centralised system are those making up the Olympic teams, qualified or in the process of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. AGERPRES (RO - author: Adrian Tone, editor: Mihai Tenea; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Rodica State)