After 2 days of training in Morocco at the United World Wrestling Training Camp and in preparation for the Africa-Oceania Olympic Qualifier on March 12-15, 2020, United World Wrestling was informed by the Moroccan Government that all international sports events were canceled until the end of March due to concerns and measures against the spread of the Corona Virus.
The Africa Oceania Olympic Games Qualifier was therefore postponed until a new date is decided at a later stage possibly in later April or May. As to date, for those athletes that arrived prior to the notice, they were allowed to continue to train at the Camp while all other travels for teams were cancelled. Palau has 3 out of the 5 team members currently training in Morocco at the UWW Africa Training Center with over 30 plus athletes from the region. Blesam Tarkong, SkarleeRenguul and Coach John Tarkong Jr. remain in Morocco. Unfortunately, Cristian Nicolescu and Guy Delumeau Jr. who train in Japan were not able to take part since they were supposed to come a few days later. According to Coach Tarkong, training has been ongoing twice a day despite such concerns and we remain focused on our training preparations. After traveling for 2 days, it’s worthwhile being here as we have good training partners and international coaches helping our team. Palau will remain in Morocco for another week and hopefully we can have a decision on when the Qualifiers will take place. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, we still have the Final OG Qualifier in May being held in Sofia, Bulgaria. As to date, Blesam is expected to train at the UWW Training Center in Bulgaria after Morocco.
Also cancelled for this month was the Asian Olympic Qualifier that was scheduled in Kyrgyzstan later this month. Originally, it was scheduled in China, but out of concerns for the Coronavirus it was relocated to Kyrgyzstan in response to the outbreak in China. As for the Pan American OG Qualifiers, it was able to take place in Canada with 18 different nations taking part.