World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing postponed to March 2023

World Athletics (WA) on Thursday, December 9, 2020, announced their agreement with the organisers of the World Athletics Indoor Championships scheduled to take place in the Chinese city of Nanjing, to postpone the event from March 19 – 21, 2021 to March 2023.

The event had already been moved from this year March 19 -21, 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While we have been liaising with the organising committee and the Chinese Athletics Association to evaluate the staging over the past few weeks, given the current global situation, there is still significant uncertainty about the state of the Covid-19 pandemic in the early part of 2021”.

For the safety of our athletes and technical officials, we must duly consider the risks in bringing a large group of people to attend the event under the pandemic situation and fully respect and carry out the pandemic prevention policy of the host country.

The indoor season for athletics falls within a narrow calendar window (up to the end of March) so it is not possible to extend the event to later in the year.

The Nanjing event will now take place a year after the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade.

Despite this postponement, our athletes will still have substantial competitive opportunities available in the early part of 2021 through the World Indoor Tour which comprises 26 meetings spread across 12 countries in Europe and North America.

The World Indoor Tour runs from the end of January to the end of February 2021 and is organised across three different tiers of competition – Gold, Silver and Bronze.