As the world continues to grapple with coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 World Archery Field Championships scheduled to be held in Yankton, USA has been postponed until 2022.
The showpiece event was slated to take place in September at the Easton Yankton Archery Center. The decision to delay was made due to restrictions still in place because of the coronavirus pandemic and to safeguard athlete wellbeing.
However, Yankton will still host the World Archery Championships in 2021.
"It is with huge regret that we delay the field championships but this decision had to be made in the current climate," said Tom Dielen, World Archery secretary-general in an official statement.
"We will now focus on scheduling a successful World Games qualification event in 2021 and look forward to the Games and championships in 2022," he added.
The world field event was planned to act as the primary qualifier for the upcoming World Games in Birmingham. That event was initially scheduled for 2021 but moved to 2022 following the delay of the Olympics.
"Making the choice to reschedule an event that so many archers are working hard towards is not easy. We want to host international tournaments that Yankton and the archery community can be proud of and this is just not possible at this time," said Bruce Cull, Yankton orgsing committee and National Field Archery Association Foundations president.
( With inputs from ANI )