The all-around World Cup series in artistic gymnastics, part of the Olympic qualification system for Tokyo 2020, is cancelled, announced the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) on Wednesday.

The series was made up of four events - in Milwaukee (United States), Stuttgart (Germany), Birmingham (Britain) and Tokyo (Japan)- originally intended to take place between March and April 2020.

While the first event took place last year in Milwaukee, the COVID-19 outbreak forced the postponement of the three other events until 2021.

The reinforcement of entry bans in Europe in recent weeks has drastically reduced the ability of foreign athletes to take part in events in the continent, leading first to the cancellation of the World Cup in Germany last week, then of the Birmingham stop this week. The World Cup in Tokyo, which serves as a test event for the 2020 games, remains unaffected at the moment.

However, the Olympic qualification system rules state that a minimum of three competitions must be held to validate the results of the series as a qualifier for Tokyo 2020. According to the rules, the unused places go to the highest-ranked countries and regions in the team ranking results of the qualifications at the 2019 World Championships.

As a result, Russia, China and Japan obtained an additional non-nominative berth for Tokyo 2020 in men's qualification while the United States, China and Russia were given an additional non-nominative berth in women's qualification.

To date, 82 places out of 98 in men's artistic and 84 out of 98 in women's artistic have already been allocated.

The remaining places at stake will be allocated through the apparatus World Cup series and the continental championships. The final stage of the apparatus World Cup series is scheduled from March 10 to 13 in Doha, Qatar.

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