World Athletics Indoor Championships Pushed Back To 2021


* The World Indoor Championships were going to be held in Nanjing, China

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An ongoing health crisis centered around a strain of particularly dangerous coronavirus originating in China has forced World Athletics to push back the World Indoor Championships, which were set for March 13-15 in Nanjing, China.

The virus reportedly originated in Wuhan, just over 300 miles east of Nanjing.

The governing body of track and field announced on Wednesday that it has officially postponed the World Championship event, issuing a statement that it will begin to look for a new site in 2021. 

In a release, World Athletics said: 

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.

This change will ultimately impact at least a handful of high school athletes who had been optimistic about the opportunity to compete for an World Indoor Championship bid in 2020.

A coach of one athlete in the Midwest said before Wednesday's announcement that the risk would be too great and that he was already pulling his athlete out of competition at the USATF Indoor Championships, which will be held at the Albuquerque Events Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from Feb. 14-15.

For more information, visit World Athletics.