The United World Wrestling (UWW) has announced the dates for the Cadet Asian Championship. The age-group competition will be held from June 24 to 27 in New Delhi. The world body announced the dates via its UWW Asia Instagram account.
Meanwhile, UWW cancelled the world championship which was planned from December 12-20 in Belgrade, Serbia. The event has now been replaced by “Individual World Cup”.
“After not reaching the criteria defined by the United World Wrestling Bureau in June to host a ‘World Championships, the decision was made Tuesday to organize an “Individual World Cup” as substitute event,” it said in the official statement.
National Federations had been given until Thursday, November 5th to confirm their interest in participating at the 2020 World Championships. UWW had set a benchmark requiring that at least 8 of 10 of the top nations from the 2019 World Championships, and 70% of total athletes, participate in 2020. With many nations reinstating travel restrictions in response to COVID-19 the participation hurdles were not met.
“We want to see our athletes compete again on the mat. It’s important to our organization and we are committed to providing them an opportunity,” said United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic. “There are real challenges to overcome, but we are working together to find a safe and acceptable format where our top athletes can compete in a world class event.”
The “Individual World Cup” will be held in Belgrade with final confirmation of dates expected in the coming days. The event will include a prize pool of 300,000 CHF spread evenly across the 30 weight categories.