London (AFP)
And the first sport to resume competition in England is ... pigeon racing! The birds flouted billiards and horse racing with a short head on Monday.
At 10:00 local time (0900 GMT), more than 4,000 pigeons were released in Kettering, in the north of England, by members of the Barnsley Federation of Racing Pigeons for a race of approximately 140 kilometers.
The feathered sprinters therefore took part in the first competition since March and the cessation of the sport because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Competitions in Great Britain can resume since Monday, behind closed doors. Pending the return of major sports - the Premier League football will not resume until June 17 - less popular competitions thus have the opportunity to attract media attention ...
... like this pigeon race.
"The race is a reason for people to get up in the morning," one of the participants, Mr. Greenshield, a 72-year-old former miner, told media.
"The people are really looking forward to it," he said, saying that the recovery would "give the region a boost."
Among the other sports that resume on Monday, snooker, a variant of popular billiards in the United Kingdom, with world champion Judd Trump starting to defend his title in Milton Keynes.
The championship is broadcast live on television, and players undergo nasal tests to detect the coronavirus.
Still on the animal racing side, horse racing is making a comeback in Newcastle with ten races and masked jockeys.
"There is not much else to see," said coach Hugo Palmer, seeing it as a "great opportunity" to showcase horse racing.
© 2020 AFP