Nanjing will have to be patient again. The International Athletics Federation (World Athletics) announced on Thursday 1st September a new postponement of the World Indoor Championships, planned in the Chinese city in 2023. Initially scheduled for 2020, then postponed for the first time to 2021 due to the health crisis, the event should be held in March 2023. It has been postponed again, World Athletics said in a statement, but to 2025. “This decision was taken with the agreement of the Nanjing Organising Committee and the Chinese Athletics Association due to the current pandemic situation,” the body said. With the Chinese event removed from the calendar, the next World Indoor Athletics Championships will be held in Glasgow (Scotland) in 2024. A call for bids has already been launched by World Athletics for the 2026 edition. China has cancelled or postponed all international sports events planned in the country since the Beijing Winter Games, with the exception of the World Table Tennis Team Championships. These are to be held in Chengdu, in a sanitary bubble, from 30 September to 9 October 2022.
