World athletics championships moving to 2022: organisers

PARIS: The 2021 world athletics championships in Eugene, Oregon, will be shifted to 2022 to accommodate the re-arranged Tokyo Olympics, World Athletics said Monday.

The announcement came immediately after Olympics organisers said the 2020 Tokyo Games -- postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic -- will now take place from July 23 to August 8 in 2021.

That means the world athletics championships that were scheduled to take place in Eugene from August 6-15, 2021, can no longer be held on those dates. “We support the new 2021 dates for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games announced today by the Japanese organisers and the IOC,” World Athletics said in a statement.

“This gives our athletes the time they need to get back into training and competition. “Everyone needs to be flexible and compromise and to that end we are now working with the organisers of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon on new dates in 2022 for our World Athletics Championships.”

World Athletics said they were also “in discussions” with the Commonwealth Games Federation, the organisers of the Commonwealth Games that are currently scheduled to be held in the English city of Birmingham from July 27-August 7, 2022.

The athletics federation said it was also talking to the organisers of the 2022 European Athletics Championships, which are due to take place in Munich on August 11-21. There has been no decision yet whether to postpone this year’s European championships, slated for Paris from August 26-30. Track and field is the traditional centrepiece of the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games.