The Latest: World's top eaters ready to chow down for hunger

Gates stand locked outside the closed Manchester City Etihad Stadium, in Manchester, northern England, as the English Premier League soccer season has been suspended due to coronavirus, Thursday, April 9, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Jon Super) (Jon Super, Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:

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Major League Eating is launching a bracket-style elimination tournament starting Friday that will air on MLE’s YouTube channel.

Among the eight contestants are Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo, the top-ranked men’s and women’s eaters in the world. They’ll face off via video from their homes in four first-to-finish rounds.

In the qualifying round, contestants will need to consume two pounds of sliced bologna. The quarterfinals require one family pack of Oreo cookies and a half-gallon of milk, the semifinals involve 10 pounds of baked beans, and the finals will be 10 individual ramen noodle cups.

The winner earns $5,000.

MLE and event sponsor BetOnline will donate $10,000 to Feeding America, which has a COVID-19 response fund.

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The Chicago Blackhawks have canceled their fan convention due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The annual event was scheduled for July 24-26 at the Hilton Chicago. It gives fans autograph opportunities as well as an audience with management, coaches and players.

The team says refunds for convention passes and hotel rooms will be processed automatically.

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Parma has become the second club in Italy’s top soccer division to announce cost-cutting measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The club says its first-team players, coaching staff and the sporting director have unanimously agreed to take a salary cut amounting to a month’s wages.

Juventus players and coach Maurizio Sarri agreed in March to forgo four months worth of salary.

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With no NBA games to watch during the sports shutdown, the Dream Team’s historic romp through Barcelona will be rebroadcast in its entirety.

The Olympic Channel will begin weekly streaming of the U.S. basketball team’s victories in the 1992 Olympics, when Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird headlined the team.

The 1992 Olympics were the first that featured NBA players, and the Americans stormed to the gold medal. They won by an average of 44 points per game and were credited with jump-starting basketball’s global growth. The team was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Full game replays will stream at Olympicchannel.com and its apps for mobile, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV and the Roku platform. First up is the Americans’ victory over Angola on Thursday night at 7 p.m. EDT.

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Italian soccer will likely resume with the Serie A before the two lower divisions.

The Italian soccer federation met with its medical commission and says it could consider a staggered start “with priority to Serie A.”

The medical commission has also recommended that when clubs resume training they do so in training camps with limited access and with strict screening protocols.

Federation president Gabriele Gravina says “we are working without rushing, but without stopping so we will be ready when the relevant institutions give us the go-ahead.”

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Speedway Motorsports, owner and operator of eight tracks that host NASCAR’s top Cup Series, has laid off 180 employees and furloughed 100 as part of a company restructuring during the sports shutdown.

Speedway Motorsports owns the Atlanta, Bristol, Charlotte, Kentucky, Las Vegas, New Hampshire, Sonoma and Texas tracks. The coronavirus pandemic caused NASCAR to suspend the season just four events into a 36-race schedule. To date, Speedway Motorsports has had its races at Atlanta, Texas and Bristol postponed.

Tracks receive a significant financial payout from NASCAR’s television contract, but that revenue has stopped without racing.

Both NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports are hoping to restart the season May 24 with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

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Novak Djokovic has been praised by the director general of the local health authority in Bergamo for his donation to help control the coronavirus outbreak in Italy.

Peter Assembergs says “we never expected to see on our bank account a donation from such a prestigious person.”

Assembergs says “reading among the donators the name of the best tennis player in the world ... made me emotional.”

The money will be used to help buy ventilators and other medical equipment.

Djokovic, his wife and their foundation recently donated 1 million euros (about $1.1 million) to help hospitals in Serbia.

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This year’s Tour de France will start on Aug. 29 and finish on Sept. 20 and will be followed by cycling’s two other major races.

The International Cycling Union announced the new dates after consulting with race organizer Amaury Sport Organisation. The Tour could not start as scheduled on June 27 because of restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The UCI also says the world championships will go ahead as planned from Sept. 20-27 and will be followed by the Giro d’Italia and the Spanish Vuelta. No official dates were given for those two major races.

The UCI says prestigious one-day road classics such as Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège will be maintained at dates still to be defined.

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