2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships

2020 World Indoors Called Off Amid Coronavirus Fears

2020 World Indoors Called Off Amid Coronavirus Fears

World Athletics has moved this year's World Indoor Championships to 2021 amid fears about the coronavirus in China.

Jan 29, 2020 by Kevin Sully
2020 World Indoors Called Off Amid Coronavirus Fears

March’s World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China have been postponed to 2021, due to the outbreak of the coronavirus in the host nation.

World Athletics made the announcement about the biennial championships on Wednesday, citing safety concerns. 

“The advice from our medical team, who are in contact with the World Health Organisation, is that the spread of the Coronavirus both within China and outside the country is still at a concerning level and no one should be going ahead with any major gathering that can be postponed,” the World Athletics release said

The meet was set to take place on March 13th through the 15th. 

Nanjing is 300 miles from Wuhan, the city where the first case was reported on December 31st, 2019. Wuhan remains on lockdown and countries have begun evacuating their citizens.  

As of Wednesday, there were 6,061 cases of the virus in China. 132 people have died. There have also been confirmed cases of the virus in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Australia and several other nations. 

World Athletics said they discussed moving the championships to another location, but were worried about the spread of the virus throughout the world. Instead, they will keep the meet in Nanjing and move it to 2021.