World Athletics on Thursday approved new dates for the World U20 Championships Nairobi 2020 and the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Minsk 2020. The World U20 Championships will now be held from August 17 to 22 next year- one week after the Tokyo Olympic Games. Under the competition’s rules, athletes aged between 16-19 years as on 31 December 2021 will be eligible to compete. The World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships have been rescheduled for 23-24 April 2022 in Minsk, Belarus. The World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Yangzhou 2022 have also had a small date change, moving back one week, from 20 March 2022, to 27 March 2022.

World Athletics has also updated the Council on conversations with organisers of the World Athletics Cross Country Championships Bathurst 2021 to explore alternative dates for the event.

This is due to ongoing travel and gathering restrictions resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic and the measures currently implemented within Australia to contain it. This includes the closure of Australia’s international borders.

“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,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said in an official statement.

The Board of the Local Organising Committee, World Athletics Cross Country Championships Bathurst 2021, the Athletics Australia board, and the New South Wales Government have reinforced their strong desire to host this World Championship and have asked World Athletics to postpone the event to a future date to be determined.

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World Athletics will work closely with all stakeholders in Australia to explore the feasibility of other dates. At this time the event remains in the calendar for 20 March 2021.

National championships windows, 2021-2024 — In an effort to assist long-term planning for the athletes and Member Federations and in line with the Global Calendar Hierarchy, the Global Calendar Unit has agreed on the following national championships protected windows from 2021-2024.