The 2020 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, the capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province, has been postponed to March 2023, the governing body of world athletics sports announced on Thursday.

Earlier this year, the World Athletics has decided to delay the 2020 World Indoor Championships for one year to next March, due to COVID-19 outbreak.

"While we have been liaising with the organizing committee and the Chinese Athletics Association to evaluate the staging over the past few weeks, given the current global situation, there is still significant uncertainty about the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early part of 2021," World Athletics wrote in a statement on its official website.

The statement said the indoor season for athletics falls within a narrow calendar window (up to the end of March) so it is not possible to extend the event to later in 2021.

"We would like Nanjing to be the host of our World Athletics Indoor Championships given the extensive planning and preparation they have put into this event," the statement said, adding that the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships will be held in Belgrade, according to the original plan.

(Cover: World Athletics Indoor Championships venue in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, China. /CFP )