World Athletics Council has announced the postponement of the 2023 Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China.
The event that was scheduled for March 17 to Mach 19, 2023 has been moved to March 2025.
According to the World Athletic Council, the decision to postpone was because of the ongoing pandemic conditions.
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“It is with regret that the World Athletics Council has decided to postpone the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 2023, scheduled for 17-19 March 2023, until March 2025 (exact dates to be confirmed).
“This decision was taken with the agreement of both the Nanjing organising committee and the Chinese Athletics Association (CAA), due to the ongoing pandemic conditions,” part of the statement read.
Nanjing had been selected to host the 2020 World Athletics Indoor Championships, before it was postponed until March 2021, and then to March 2023.
The postponement means that the next edition of the World Athletics Indoor Championships will be in March 2024 in Glasgow.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe noted that the available time frame would not allow them to move the event.
“We’re disappointed that we have had to postpone this event again due to circumstances beyond our control, but we have done so to give certainty to athletes and Member Federations preparing for the 2023 competition season. Unfortunately, the timeframe will prevent us from relocating the 2023 event, but the indoor championships will return in 2024 in Glasgow.
Sebastian Coe noted that the reason to name Nanjing as the host of the 2025 edition was that they wanted to protect the parties from financial losses as the preparations have already been put in place.
The bidding process for the 2026 edition has already commenced.
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