U-20 World athletics postponed by a day; travel woes for Indian athletes

The World Athletics U-20 championships, which was scheduled to begin in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Tuesday, has been postponed by a day and will start on August 18. However, there is no change in the closing date - which is August 22.

“The impact of COVID on teams travelling and logistics of moving vital equipment around the world have proven to be a challenge,” explained World Athletics.

“However, the full athletics programme will be accommodated across five days rather than five-and-a-half days with minimal impact on the athletes attending from more than 100 countries.”

READ: World Athletics U-20 Championships: Focus on Ajai Raj Singh Rana, Shaili Singh

Travel trouble

The Indian athletes had some anxious moments at the New Delhi airport on Saturday night as they got ready to fly to Nairobi via Doha.

Officials of the airline, which was to fly the team to Doha, asked for a letter from the Kenyan Health Ministry to clear the athletes for the flight. “We have the invitation from World Athletics and every athlete has an individual QR code from the Kenyan Health Ministry but they are not accepting it,” said a coach with the team.

The matter was sorted out later, the flight was delayed and the team was allowed to travel to Doha. The team reached Nairobi on Sunday.