Diamond League set to have no spectators on resumption

A host of events, not least the Olympic Games, have been wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic, but the Diamond League is slated to provisionally return in mid-August after a revised calendar was announced earlier this week.

But Coe says those 11 events are all likely to be held without spectators.

“In the short-term we may have to compromise on that,” said Coe. “We can’t be oblivious or tin-eared to what we are being told by local communities and public health authorities.

“It may well mean that. I don’t think anybody is contemplating this as the ideal long-term solution - sport would wither on the vine quite quickly if that were the case.

“But that may well be a compromise we have to make in order to get the athletes back into competition, leagues finished, at least some kind of competition.”