World Para Athletics has announced on Thursday (22 October) the provisional calendar for the 2021 season. It includes the dates for the World Para Athletics Grand Prix and the European Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
The host city of the last World Championships, Dubai will open the Grand Prix season from 10-13 February at UAE’s Fazza International Athletics Championships. Other two GPs will follow in March. First in Tunisian capital Tunis from 18-20, then in Sao Paulo, Brazil from 25-27.
The series will head to Europe in April with Italy staging the Grand Prix from 16-18 at a venue and host city yet to be confirmed. Still in April, the fifth leg is set to be held in the Chinese capital Beijing from 23-25.
The Grand Prix returns to Europe in May. First travelling to Paris, France from 5-7. Then visiting Nottwil, Switzerland at one of the world’s fastest wheelchair racing tracks from 14-16.
Mesa, USA is set to host the ninth leg of the Grand Prix at the traditional Arizona Desert Challenge Games with dates yet to be confirmed.
World Para Athletics also confirmed the Bydgoszcz 2021 European Championships will take place from 1-5 June. The competition was initially scheduled to 2-7 June this year but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
The coronavirus outbreak also caused the 2020 Grand Prix to be cancelled and forced the postponement of the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan from 2021 to 2022.
Due to the rescheduling of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and the World Championships, World Para Athletics confirmed that the Junior World Championships will not take place in 2021 but in 2022 instead.
The aim is to continue aligning the Junior Worlds in the same year as the World Championships. Dates and host city will be confirmed at a later date.
More information about the World Para Athletics Grand Prix can be found on www.worldparaathletics.org.