Commonwealth Games to start 24 hours later to encourage greater participation

Commonwealth Games organisers hope athletes will rise to the unique challenge of claiming three major championship medals in one summer after moving the Birmingham 2022 event to encourage greater participation.

The tournament has been moved back 24 hours to provide more recovery time for those competing in the rearranged World Athletics Championships, which take place in Oregon from 15-24 July.

The Birmingham Games will now start on 28 July and finish on 8 August.

The organisers’ dilemma came as a result of a major reshuffle of the sporting calendar amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the new date also ensuring the opening ceremony will not clash with the semi-finals of the Uefa Women’s European Championship, which will be held in England a year later than planned.

With the multi-sport European Championships also taking place in Munich from 11-21 August, track-and-field stars from Britain and Ireland have anunprecedentedprogramme of major events. Commonwealth Games organisers will compress the athletics component from seven to five days and push it towards the end of the Games to allow more rest from the Oregon event.

And they will seek to promote the hectic schedule as a golden opportunity for athletes rather than a problem.

Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive David Grevemberg said: “It’s a wonderful challenge in some respects to do the unprecedented. You can almost create it as a grand slam and I think it’s something athletes respond to. It’s a challenge. Athletes like a challenge.

“It will probably invoke some ambitions. We need to invent the realm of possibility here: a grand slam that summer in terms of getting golds in all three of those, I think could be a really momentous opportunity, not only for the sport but those individual athletes. It’s a huge opportunity.”

Grevemberg described the solution as “maybe not optimal but it is workable” after concerns were raised that the likes of Dina Asher-smith and Katarina Johnson-thompson might have to be selective in their events if they were to compete at Birmingham at all.

“Our job is to create a moment in time that is the place to be in 2022 in terms of the experience of the athletes and the platform we offer,” he added.

“We have a track record of doing that in a very distinct way and Birmingham will be no different. This will be a place athletes will want to be at.”