World Athletics Indoor Championships 2021 Postponed To March 2023

World Athletics (WA) on Thursday announced that they have agreed with the organisers of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing to postpone the event from March 19-21 in 2021 to March 2023. "Whilst we have been liaising with the Organising Committee and the Chinese Athletics Association to evaluate the staging over the last 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," WA said in a release.

It is with regret that we have agreed with the organisers of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing (19-21 March 2021) to postpone the event to March 2023.

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) December 10, 2020

"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," it added.

Earlier this year, the event was postponed to March 2021 after the coronavirus outbreak in China. The event was originally scheduled to held in Nanjing from March 13-15 this year.

Nanjing will now host the World Indoor Championships 2023, one year after the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade in 2022.

Despite this postponement, 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.