The Surf City El Salvador ISA World Surfing Games (WSG) has been postponed to, in principle, the second half of 2020, the International Surfing Association reported in a statement sent to the press this afternoon.

The decision was made in agreement with the government of El Salvador and following the announcement made this morning by the IOC and Tokyo 2020 to postpone the games from July 23 to August 8, 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Together with its partners in El Salvador, the ISA will continue to regularly monitor developments regarding the Coronavirus outbreak globally and in El Salvador and will re-evaluate the status of the event once again on 1 May 2020. The ISA strongly encourages the entire global surfing community to respect and follow the guidelines established to prevent the spread of the virus.

The announcement may impact the qualification system, the statement said, adding: “The ISA will coordinate closely with the IOC in the coming weeks regarding the qualification process and the role of the WSGs in Olympic qualification. Following the decision that all previously obtained qualification spots remain confirmed, the 2020 WSG qualification status and applicable eligibility requirements remain in effect until further notice.”

This implies that the ranking system for the 12 places could change.  are available (7 women and 5 men). This leaves the door open for a World Surfing Games in March 2021 to qualify 3 and 3 respectively and El Salvador 2020 to qualify 4 and 2, to cite an example.

“The ISA will continue to work with its partners in El Salvador and other stakeholders, including the World Surf League (WSL), to determine new dates and provide updates at the appropriate time,” the statement added, stressing: “The ISA is fully confident that the Olympic Surfing event will run efficiently and successfully in 2021.”