British athletes will face a bumper summer in 2022 after it was confirmed that three major outdoor championships will take place within a period of little over a month.
World Athletics announced on Wednesday that the 2021 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon will now be held from July 15-24, 2022, in order to avoid a clash with the rearranged Tokyo Olympic Games next summer.
They will kick start a run of three major outdoor championships virtually back-to-back, with the Commonwealth Games starting in Birmingham the following day and running until August 7, just four days before the European Championships get underway in Munich.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said the summer would be a “bonanza for athletics fans around the world”.
"They will be treated to six weeks of absolutely first-class athletics,” he added. “More than 70 of our Member Federations are part of the Commonwealth and more than 50 of our Member Federations are European so 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.”
Great Britain & Northern Ireland – broken up into distinct countries for the Commonwealth Games - are one of the few nations who could potentially send athletes to all three championships, along with Ireland, Malta, Gibraltar and Cyprus.
It remains to be seen whether many, if any, athletes will attempt to treble up all three meetings in such a short space of time, while athletes in disciplines such as the marathon will likely choose to prioritise just one.
