World Athletics President Sebastian Coe has warned that COVID-19 still poses "considerable challenges" to upcoming major events in China ©Getty Images

The staging of upcoming major World Athletics events in China poses "considerable challenges" because of continuing concerns over COVID-19, the World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said today.

Speaking at a media conference in Monaco following the virtual 227th meeting of the World Athletics Council, Coe looked ahead to the 10 World Athletics Series (WAS) events due to be held within the next two years "because of the concertina-ing of the calendar off the back of the Tokyo 2020 delays."

He added: "COVID-19 is still with us, and for many of our Council members and their federations, and certainly our area associations, there are still considerable challenges posed by COVID.

"And of course China is one of them because three of our World Athletics Series (WAS) events take place between now and next year in China.

"If I add to that two Diamond Leagues and a Continental Tour Gold event you can see that those too are also challenging."

World Athletics Series events scheduled for China in 2022 and 2023 still face
World Athletics Series events scheduled for China in 2022 and 2023 still face "considerable challenges" because of COVID-19, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said today ©Getty Images

Yangzhou is due to host the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships on November 13 this year, and Guangzhou is scheduled to host the World Athletics Relays from May 13 to 14 in 2023.

In between those events the Nanjing World Athletics Indoor Championships, postponed from 2020 and then 2021 because of COVID-19 concerns, are due to take place from March 17 to 19.

Coe added: "Oregon 2022 we hope will be a great World Championships in a market that is very important to us, but vaccines and visas are still an issue there."

The 2022 World Athletics Championships are set to be held in Oregon from July 15 to 24.