China renounces hosting right for the World Weightlifting Championship due to outbreaks of COVID-19

The strong outbreaks of COVID-19 China is currently suffering have forced it to establish such far-reaching regulations, meaning hosting the World Weightlifting Championship, scheduled for later this year, will not be possible.

The resignation by the Chinese Weightlifting Association (CWA) was disclosed on Wednesday on the official website of the international federation.

The world event was scheduled for November in the city of Chongqing, located about 1,800 km south of Beijing.

The current situation of the coronavirus pandemic and the new Omicron variant, means the Chinese weightlifting authorities “have had to reassess China’s ability” to host the next International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships.

“Given the much stricter COVID-19 prevention and control rules being implemented, which would force all teams and officials to self-quarantine for 21 days, the CWA deemed it no longer feasible for the World Championships to take place in China in 2022 within the standard of the IWF requirements,” said the statement.

“After careful consideration, we very much regret that we are unable to meet all the IWF requirements to host the World Championships.

“We are committed to our sport and would like to assure the IWF family that as soon as the situation allows, we will be more than happy to host future IWF World Championships and events as we have in the past,” the CWA said in a letter to the IWF.

“The Chinese Weightlifting Association has been a great partner, together we have been working hard for more than two years to hold the World Championships in China this year.

“However, unfortunately the pandemic is still with us and we must do what is best for our sport and our athletes. We thank the Chinese Weightlifting Association for all their efforts and look forward to returning to China at a later time,” said interim IWF President Dr. Michael Irani.

China was the leading powerlifting nation at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with seven gold medals and one silver.

The Chinese organizers had promised a good number of initiatives for this tournament, which had aroused great expectations in the international weightlifting family.

The IWF Executive Board announced it is working to find a replacement host and will provide more information shortly.

Any member federation interested in hosting the World Championships this year will have 15 days to provide a letter of intent to the IWF. All letters can be sent to competition@iwfnet.net

The resignation of the Weightlifting World Championships has turned attention to the World University Games to be held in Chengdu (about 300 km from Chongqing) in less than 100 days.

China had managed to control infections in 2020 and 2021, even its health protocols and its “zero COVID” policy led to its success in holding the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in February and March.

For the past two years, China’s strict measures to contain COVID-19, imposed with rapid lockdowns and aggressive restrictions, seemed to be paying off in much of the country.

Since the first wave, China has not seen an uptick in cases, however on March 13, the Chinese government acknowledged it was facing a problem.

This Tuesday, the Chinese National Health Commission announced the detection of 2,667 new positives for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, 2,591 due to local contagion and the rest imported.

The places with the highest numbers of infections were Jilin (northeast, 2,320), Fujian (southeast, 110), Liaoning (northeast, 36) and Tianjin (northeast, 24).

Health authorities also reported the detection of 2,469 asymptomatic cases, 2,346 by local contagion, although Beijing does not count them as confirmed cases unless they show symptoms.

The total of this type of infections under observation is 22,000, of which 1,589 come from other territories.

China, which applies a severe “zero tolerance” policy towards the new coronavirus, is going through a wave of outbreaks attributed to the Omicron variant, causing record numbers of infections not seen since the start of the pandemic in the first half of 2020.