The 2021 World Para Athletics Championships, originally scheduled for September next year in Kobe, will be held a year later to accommodate the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, sources said Monday.
The world's biggest para sports event after the Paralympics, the championships will take place from Aug. 26-Sept. 4, 2022, following an agreement between the International Paralympic Committee and the Kobe city government, the sources said.
The one-year delay of the 2020 Summer Games was announced on March 24 in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The Olympics, which were originally scheduled to open on July 24, will now take place between July 23-Aug. 8, 2021, followed by the Paralympics from Aug. 24-Sept. 5.
The Kobe event, which had been slated for Sept. 17-26, will now coincide with the athletics world championships in Eugene, Oregon, which have also been pushed back by a year to July 2022. The new timetable will also avoid a clash with the 2022 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China, in October.
Several other international sports events are likely to be rescheduled next year as a result of the Tokyo Games postponement.
Swimming's world governing body FINA has said next year's world championships in Fukuoka, scheduled for July 16-Aug. 1, will be moved to a different date.
Some 1,300 athletes from 100 countries and regions are expected to take part when Kobe becomes the first Japanese city to host the para championships.