Japanese news agency Kyodo on Friday, April 2, released information that the Diving World Cup, which is a qualifying event for the Tokyo Olympics, may be canceled due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

The publication notes that the International Swimming Federation (FINA) and the organizing committee of the Olympics thought about such drastic measures after some national teams expressed their reluctance to take part in the tournament, which was to be held from April 18 to 23 in Tokyo.

This interpretation does not seem to be a very successful attempt by the Japanese side to "save face": in fact, the final decision to cancel the event was made by FINA on the evening of April 1, which was urgently notified to the national federations of the participating countries.

There are several reasons that led to the cancellation of an event in a sport in which eight sets of Olympic awards are played.

FINA experts highly negatively assessed the host's plan to prevent the threat of infection of COVID-19 event participants.

Added to this were reports from national federations that Japanese diplomatic missions in their countries are not ready to provide a normal procedure for issuing visas.

As follows from the press release, the Japanese side has requested additional funding from FINA for the implementation of additional countermeasures against the coronavirus, including a mandatory three-day quarantine for all participants, including the judiciary and other representatives of the international federation.

According to FINA, this entails certain financial costs and organizational difficulties, since the pre-Olympic World Cup is considered a test tournament and involves the participation of a fairly large number of specialists and observers.

In addition, now the situation is superimposed on the four-day Easter holidays, which begin in many countries on Friday, and no one, apparently, intends to urgently save the Japanese project.

Hence, probably, the harshness of the wording voiced in the press release.

“FINA believes that the Japanese government did not take all the necessary measures to ensure the successful and fair organization of this competition,” the letter said.

Recall that the World Cup has already been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic: it was originally planned to be held in Tokyo from April 21 to 26, 2020.

Now FINA has to decide where and when an alternative tournament could be held that would allow the divers to qualify for the Olympic Games.

It's a paradox, but, perhaps, the only country in the world that is able to organize such an event in a short time, providing all its participants with travel to the venue and security guarantees, is Russia.

It is worth remembering that in September the Russian Diving Federation managed to hold a stage of the High Diving World Cup in Yalta, inviting all the top stars there and providing each of the foreign athletes with an individual corridor for passing all visa border formalities with the support of the country's government.

True, now such a project is greatly complicated by the fact that the president of the Russian Federation of Diving Alexei Vlasenko has been suspended and is under investigation.

The head coach of the Russian national diving team Svetlana Moiseeva, who is now in Ruza near Moscow, where it was planned to hold the final training camp before the team's departure to Japan, expressed great concern over the latest news.

“Of course, this is very unpleasant.

We were preparing, intending to perform in Japan as much as possible.

This season, everything is going so that our athletes do not have international starts at all, with the exception of the May European Championship, which is to be held in Budapest.

And we, of course, very much hope that we will be able to perform at least there.

But the World Cup is a very special story, the opportunity to see the Olympic pool, to test the equipment.

It is clear that in the minds of many people, the cancellation of such important competitions is a wake-up call.

I would very much like to hope that our main start in Tokyo will nevertheless take place this year, "said Moiseeva RT.