Lima reinstated as host of World Athletics U-20 Championships
Lima, Peru, has been reinstated as host of the 2024 World Athletics Under-20 Championships, four months after they had withdrawn their bid, citing “recent political instability and social unrest, as well as natural disasters in Peru”.
In April, World Athletics had announced the South American city but was forced to give up the hosting of the event as situations had “left the federation and the local organising committee unable to stage the event next year”.
In a release on Monday from the The World Athletics Council that is being held in Budapest, Hungary, World Athletics said they had reverted to the original arrangement.
“The situation has stabilised in Lima, and with strong backing from the Peruvian Government, the Peruvian Federation has confirmed that it is now able to host the event from 26-31 August, 2024 as previously scheduled.”
At the time president of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) Garth Gayle had told the Jamaica Observer they would have been interested in hosting the event, if the bid was reopened.
Meanwhile, the release said Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, will host the 2026 staging of the World Athletics Under-20 Championships for the second time.
Hayward Field hosted the event in 2014 and the refurbished stadium hosted last year’s World Athletics Championships.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe was quoted as saying: “We are grateful that so many great cities around the world are interested in hosting our events and we’re delighted with the quality of the candidates we have had to choose from to host these World Athletics Series events over the next three years. The standard of bids is so high that we would like to encourage those who were not successful today to continue talking to us about staging future events.”
Among other decisions, the council approved the dates for the World Athletics Relays Guangzhou 25, which will be held May 10-11, 2025, while the World Athletics Road Running Championships has been awarded to San Diego, USA, for 2025 and to Copenhagen, Denmark, for 2026.
