ROME Two-time Olympic 800 metres finalist Donato Sabia has died from the coronavirus at the age of 56, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) announced on Wednesday. Sabia finished fifth in the 800 metres at Los Angeles in 1984 and seventh in Seoul four years later. He won the gold medal in the same event at the European Indoor Championships in 1984. CONI said that Sabia had been in the intensive care unit of the San Carlo hospital on Potenza, in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, for “a few days.” Sabia died shortly after his father died from the coronavirus. According to CONI, he is the first Olympic finalist in the world to die from the virus. The World Athletics Championships in Oregon have been rescheduled for July 15-24, 2022 after the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Oregon World Championships were originally scheduled for Aug. 6- 15, 2021, but have been rescheduled to the following year to avoid a clash with the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The new dates, which have been approved by the World Athletics Council, set up a packed calendar for track and field athletes. The Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK (July 27- Aug. 7) and the European Athletics Championships in Munich, Germany (Aug. 11- 21) will be held in the weeks after. “This will be a bonanza for athletics fans around the world,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said in a statement. “They will be treated to six weeks of absolutely first-class athletics.— Reuters
