The Nanjing World Athletics Indoor Championships in China was postponed to 2023, announced the World Athletics earlier this week. This was only one of the latest losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to the athletics world.

Despite that, Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, remains hopeful that most of the track and field events next year, including those in the Tokyo Olympics, will happen.

"Yes, I'm hopeful. I'm not sure 'optimistic' is the right word, but at last there are elements that give me more comfort," said Coe in an online interview.

In October, the 64-year-old former men's 1,500-meter Olympic gold medalist visited Tokyo and he was the first high-profile leader of international sporting organizations to go to Japan since the outbreak of the coronavirus. During his time in Tokyo, Coe expressed his confidence that the Tokyo Olympic will overcome the pandemic and the uncertainties it had brought to take place.

"We hope there will be spectators in the stadium, but we don't know. There may only be a partially full stadium. The athletes are going to get used to living in a village where social distancing is probably still going to be important, where masks may still need to be worn. They will be ready for that because they are, by nature, adaptable. They are there to compete and they are going to do everything they can to compete well," said Coe.

The Nanjing World Athletics Indoor Championships was originally scheduled to happen in March. It was first postponed by a year for the sake of the pandemic. However, since the coronavirus is still kicking around, the event had to be delayed for the second time.

"When you postpone an event you are always disappointed. When you postpone an event in a country that are passionate about the sport, you are probably more disappointed. But we do understand the challenges. I'm delighted that we have been able to announce it will take place in 2023. It's a shame it happened, but I think everybody understands the complexity of the world we are now living in. China is a country and a member federation that has constantly wanted to stage our events, and we are very pleased that they want to continuously do that," said Coe.

Though Coe maintains his faith that things will come back to normal, he also takes a cautious attitude against the virus. "I'm not scientist and a scientist has warned me to be cautious. Because the virus' pattern changes, sometimes it's complicated and difficult to be interpreted."