MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. The Russian national championships in 100-kilometer running as well as the championship in the 24-hour running have been cancelled as a preventive measure against the spread of the novel coronavirus, the press office of the All-Russia Athletics Federation (RusAF) said in a statement on Wednesday.
Russia’s 100-kilometer Running Championship was scheduled to be held this month in Moscow, while the 24-hour Run Championship was slated to be hosted by the city of Volgograd also this month.
Russia’s 100-kilometer running championship was hosted last year by the city of Bryansk, where Igor Veretennikov won the tournament in men’s competitions (6 hours 39.28 minutes) and Olga Veselkina in women’s competitions (7 hours; 49.13 minutes).
The 24-hour Running tournament in 2019 was hosted by the Russian capital of Moscow, where the winner in men’s competitions, Valery Dolzhinov, covered the distance of 257 kilometers, and Tatiana Fomina won the women’s competition with the result of 233 kilometers.
Global coronavirus crisis
In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 36,125,200 people have been infected worldwide and more than 1,055,990 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 27,194,240 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
To date, 1,248,619 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 995,275 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 21,865 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.