2020 World Athletics Indoor Championships in China postponed amid coronavirus outbreak

MOSCOW. KAZINFORM World Athletics, the international association of national track and field athletics federations, resolved to postpone the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 2020 due to the novel coronavirus outbreak in the host nation, China.

The tournament was scheduled to take place in the Chinese city of Nanjing on March 13-15, 2020, TASS reports.

World Athletics thanked the countries that offered to host the tournament instead of China, but decided to reject the proposals «as it may lead to further postponement at a later date.»

«We will now work with our athletes, our partners and the Nanjing organising committee to secure a date in 2021 to stage this event,» World Athletics said in a statement.

The Chinese government ruled to cancel all sporting events on the country’s territory until April due to an outbreak of pneumonia caused by the 2019-nCoV coronavirus. As of Wednesday, the number of infected persons topped 6,000, more than 130 of them died. Apart from China, the infection was registered in 15 countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the outbreak in China as a national emergency but stopped short of declaring an international one.