World Athletics sets new dates for World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi
Athletics
By
Waweru Titus
| Jul 30, 2020
The World U20 Championships will now be held in Nairobi from 17 to 22 August next year, one week after the Tokyo Olympic Games.
According to World Athletics, the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a major disruption of the sports calendar but efforts have been made so that athletes can still showcase their talents.
“The disruption caused by the global pandemic has made it more difficult to schedule international events over the next two years but we want to give as much certainty as we can to our athletes, Member Federations, host cities and partners.
“We have done our best to choose dates that we believe are achievable and offer the best chance for our athletes and event hosts to shine on the international stage,” the World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said in a statement on Thursday.
Under the competition’s rules, athletes aged 16, 17, 18 or 19 years on 31 December 2021 will be eligible to compete.
The decision to postpone the World Under-20 Athletics Championships in March meant Kenya suffered huge financial loss.
Barnaba Korir, the Chairman of Athletics Kenya (AK) Youth Development said the move meant a big loss to the country as they had already used Sh25 million on setting up athletes' camps.
The World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships have also been rescheduled for 23-24 April 2022 in Minsk, Belarus.
The World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Yangzhou 2022 have had a small date change, moving back one week, from 20 March 2022, to 27 March 2022.