HANOVER — Dartmouth College has canceled the 2022 Dartmouth Relays next month due to COVID-19 concerns.
The Relays, scheduled for Jan. 8 and 9, are called off “as part of Dartmouth’s continuing effort to reduce the rate of COVID-19 transmission in its community,” Dartmouth’s Athletics Department said in a news release on Monday.
The annual track and field meet typically brings more than 2,000 athletes to Dartmouth’s Leverone Field House and includes teams from around New England ranging from high school to master’s programs. The meet was set to return for the first time since January 2020.
Given “the dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases in the region and the nation combined with the large number of competitors who would enter the Dartmouth campus for the relays, … the athletic department determined that the most responsible decision is to cancel the event,” Dartmouth interim athletic director Peter Roby said in the release.
The release indicated that other Dartmouth indoor athletic events “with far fewer competitors will take place as scheduled.”
The Dartmouth Relays are expected to return in January 2023 “when public health conditions are expected to be more suitable,” the release said.
With the Relays canceled, Dartmouth track and field will next face competition on Jan. 22 against Yale and Columbia in New Haven, Conn.