Coronavirus: Bay of Plenty athletes and sporting organisations roll with the punches

Tauranga wrestler Ana Moceyawa's fight for an Olympic has hit a speed bump. Photo / File

The ever-widening reach of the coronavirus is affecting people from all walks of life and sport in Bay of Plenty is no different. Sports reporter David Beck has the story.

Tauranga wrestling, grappling and judo champion Ana Moceyawa has her heart set on qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

So far, circumstances far outside of her control have conspired against her achieving her dream.

The 30-year-old was due to compete at the 2020 Oceania Wrestling Championship in January - an event that doubled as an Olympic qualifier - but that was cancelled due to the measles outbreak in Samoa.

That meant her last chance to qualify was at the African and Oceania Olympic Games Qualifier wrestling competition in Morocco, due to be held from March 13-15.

Moceyawa flew to Morocco last week and took part in a training camp with some of the best wrestlers in the world to prepare for the event.

However, the ongoing efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus saw the tournament cancelled, leaving her qualification up in the air, let alone whether the Olympics will even go ahead.

"I was over there for three days. I didn't think it would actually get cancelled. When it was I realised how serious it was. We've just been told to keep fit, keep our weight down and pretty much train as if we are going.

"Obviously it might get worse before it gets better so we just have to wait and see. It is a little bit tough [to keep training], it's not the most motivating time, especially when you don't know what will happen.

"Luckily I have a tight-knit group of people around me who support me. It's something we can't control and health comes first, it just shows how serious it is - to cancel the Olympics would be a big deal."

She said, in terms of her training and where she was at physically, she was feeling "really good".

"I was lucky enough to do the training camp with some of the best in the world, so that was good. I actually learned heaps, I was keeping up with them and I felt fit and confident."

Moceyawa said if the Olympics were cancelled or she did not make it, she was not sure if she would be willing to have another crack in four years' time.

"It just depends on how the body is going, I don't know if I want to put the body through another four years, I've been doing sport since I was a kid so I was hoping to move forward with other parts of my life after this."

This weekend's Generation Homes Legend of the Lake event has been cancelled. Photo / File

This weekend, more than 1000 swimmers were due to descend on Rotorua's Blue Lake (Tikitapu) for the Generation Homes Legend of the Lake but the event has been cancelled after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced gatherings of more than 500 people should be cancelled to help stop the spread of the virus.

Event director Scott Rice said the cancellation was disappointing and would impact the organisers financially but it was about doing what was best for New Zealand.

"At this time you have to be led by the authorities who know far more than we all do about it. Part of it is the Government's directive, following the rules and following the law, the other factors are actually stopping, putting the business aside and saying 'is this the right thing to do right now?'.

"Even if we had split the event day or tried to get around the 500 limit, was that the right thing to do? At the end of the day, myself and my team felt that would've been the wrong call. At the end of the day, you have to do the right thing to support the Government's desire to flatten the curve.

"Everyone's hurting, all the businesses are hurting, ours is hurting, but this is one of those times where you have to be resilient enough to survive it. I'm hopeful we can and once this disappears there will be a huge support for local events and tourism," Rice said.

Meanwhile, the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union announced Te Ika a Māui Sevens, formerly known as the North Island Secondary Schools Sevens, scheduled for March 30-31 at Blake Park, Mount Maunganui, have been cancelled.

With School Sport New Zealand suspending all sanctioned events on its national calendar and this one being held during Summer Tournament Week, the union had no choice.

Community rugby manager Pat Rae said: "Coronavirus and its impact on the sporting world have now become part of our daily life. It's disappointing that we have to go down this path, but the overriding factor is the health and safety of the players, parents, staff and volunteers.

"We are already fielding a number of inquiries from schools so this decision was an easy one to make. I am sad for those players from the 70+ teams that were planning to come to our region and play in this cool event, but maybe now with the current landscape, staying at home and being with family is more important."

The Mount Maunganui based All Blacks Sevens have halted training as two of their recent opponents are being tested for coronavirus.

Two members of the Australian rugby sevens team have been tested after showing signs and symptoms of the virus.

New Zealand played Australia in the final of the Vancouver event of the World Sevens Series on March 8 and have imposed precautionary measures as a result.

Murupara player Weka Kirk (left) and Waikite's Tui Tango in action during last year's Rotorua Senior Netball competition. At this stage, the 2020 season is going ahead. Photo / File

The Rotorua Netball Centre has been forced to think outside the square to be able to offer a senior competition this year.

With grading set to begin on Saturday, Rotorua Netball secretary Mary Thompson said changes had been made to ensure the number of people at the Westbrook Courts did not exceed 500.

"We have split the draw into two divisions so that we have less than 500 people at the courts at any one time. Teams playing in the morning are requested to leave the courts immediately after their second game so that the afternoon games can commence at 12.30pm.

"We thought it would be good to keep it going and have some sort of normality during this time, so we came up with this solution. Obviously we have to keep up to date with what's happening, it can change pretty fast, and we have asked teams to let us know if they are not happy with these arrangements and do not wish to play."

Tauranga Gold Under-13's Tamati Jones in action during last year's Mel Young Easter Classic basketball tournament. This year's event has been cancelled. Photo / File

Tauranga City Basketball were set to host one of their biggest events of their season from April 10-13, the Mel Young Easter Classic, but that has been cancelled as well.

Tauranga City Basketball general manager and Mel Young Easter Classic event director Mark Rogers said it was "definitely" disappointing, but for the greater good.

"It's a huge event on the calendar, we had teams from all over the North Island coming and seven teams from Australia. We had 153 teams registered and itis usually a great opportunity for us to be doing development for players, coaches and referees so it's pretty sad.

Health and safety comes first, we don't want to create any opportunity for people to be put at risk.

"We would've had about 1500 competitors spread over six different venues in the city so technically we probably could've gone ahead and managed in terms of the numbers at each of the venues but we didn't think that was the right decision to make so we've cancelled. Health and safety comes first, we don't want to create any opportunity for people to be put at risk."

Rogers said, at this stage, local competitions were still going ahead but the situation was fluid.

"We're waiting on more information from the Government around their expectations for local competitions. We'll follow the lead of the Ministry of Health or Basketball New Zealand, whoever we need to, to make sure we're keeping our people safe."

The list of events being postponed or cancelled is growing by the hour.

Xterra Rotorua, due to be held on April 4 has been cancelled, as has Taupō's popular Iron Māori event due to be held this weekend.

The Oxfam Trailwalker 2020 due to be held in Whakatāne this weekend has been cancelled as has the Pay What You Want Tauranga Half Marathon.

The Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic are scheduled to play ANZ Premiership matches against the Northern Stars in Mount Maunganui on March 23 and against the Northern Mystics in Rotorua on March 30.

While these are both scheduled to go ahead, they will be played behind closed doors in light of the new mass gathering rules.

The season could still yet be suspended as has been the trend with other domestic competitions.