World Athletics confirm new dates for Oregon world championships 2022

PARIS - The World Athletics Championships in Oregon have been postponed for nearly one whole year and rescheduled to 15 to 24 July in 2022, the world governing body of the sport confirmed on Wednesday.

The Oregon World Championships were originally scheduled for August 6 to 15 August, 2021. But the Tokyo Olympic Games have been rescheduled to July 23 to August 8, 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. And in consequence, World Athletics decided to reschedule the biennial events to the following year to avoid a clash with the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

After "extensive discussions" with Oregon organizers and organizers of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and the multisport European Championships in Munich, which are both due to be held in the summer of 2022, the World Athletics Council approved the new dates this week to prevent a direct conflict between any of these major events.

"This will be a bonanza for athletics fans around the world," World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said. "They will be treated to six weeks of absolutely first-class athletics. Our guiding principle in rescheduling the World Championships was to ensure enough space was created around the centrepiece World Athletics Championship for athletes to choose other major events to compete in."

According to World Athletics, the World Championships will start the six-week "bonanza" of the sport, followed by the Commonwealth Games and the European Athletics Championships as part of the European Championships.

"We believe we have found a solution that will allow athletes who are eligible for the other two events to compete in them with the Commonwealth Games Federation planning to stage the athletics programme towards the end of their event. This will showcase our sport to its best advantage in the circumstances and we will continue collaborating with all competitions on the detailed programming," Coe said.