(Reuters) – Next year’s world cross country championships have been pushed back to 2023 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions in Australia, governing body World Athletics said on Wednesday.
Australia has some of the tightest restrictions in the world aimed at preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus, including limiting the number of arrivals and imposing a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine on those entering the country.
World Athletics and the local organising committee for the championships said in a statement https://www.worldathletics.org/news/press-releases/world-cross-country-championships-bathurst-postponed-2023 that the quarantine requirements were “not practical for a one-day event”.
The championships, which had been scheduled for Feb. 19 in Bathurst, New South Wales, would now take place on Feb. 18, 2023 at the same venue.
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
