This last week has seen a shock announcement come to the world of sports, as the World Athletics Indoor Championships that were due to be held in Nanjing earlier this year have now been pushed back a second time, to as far away as 2023.
On 22 January of this year, The Nanjinger published a story, “50 Days Until World Indoor Athletics Championships in Nanjing”, that also announced tickets for the meet had just gone on sale.
That was the day before the Wuhan lockdown.
In the following days, a slew of international events, sporting and otherwise, were cancelled or postponed across China.
Due to run from 13 to 15 March of this year, the first postponement for the World Indoor Athletics meet came less than a week after Wuhan’s lockdown, rescheduling the games for 19 to 21 March of next year.
No exact dates have for the 2023 meet have as yet been officially announced, but insiders are confident of another March schedule, as the end of that month typically marks the end of the indoor season for athletics.
On the other hand, at time of writing, the official website of the Championships, worldathleticsnanjing2020.com, has still not announced the second postponement.
It has instead been left to media worldwide to report the news. For BBC Sport, World Athletics said, “We must fully respect and carry out the pandemic prevention policy of the host country”.
World Athletics also commented, “We would like Nanjing to be the host of our World Indoor Championships given the extensive planning and preparation they have put into this event so have agreed they will stage the event 1 year after the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade in 2022”, reported Inside the Games.
The Serbian capital was named as host of the World Athletics Indoor Championships for 2022 in November of last year.
Normally a biennial event and last held in Birmingham in 2018, this second postponement for the World Indoor Athletics meet resulting in a 4 year gap between fixtures that essentially amounts to a complete cancellation also now has sports fans questioning the Olympics as to whether 2021 may also be the first time the Games have been cancelled during peacetime.
