IPC Athletics opens bidding for 2019 World Championships

“The Para-Athletics World Championships is the world’s biggest single para-sport event and has continually grown in size and scale each edition.”

IPC Athletics, the global governing body of para-athletics, has opened the bid process for the 2019 World Championships, the final major international track and field event prior to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

The Championships is the biggest single para-sport event and in three years’ time is set to attract more than 1,300 athletes from over 100 countries.

As well as being an opportunity to win coveted world titles, the 2019 Para-Athletics World Championships will act as a major qualification event for the Paralympic Games to be held in the Japanese capital the following year.

Ryan Montgomery, IPC Summer Sports Director, said: “The Para-Athletics World Championships is the world’s biggest single para-sport event and has continually grown in size and scale each edition. The 2019 edition will take on extra significance as it is the last major international para-athletics event prior to Tokyo 2020, so we expect competition standards to be of an extremely high standard.

“The 2015 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, attracted the largest ever number of teams, athletes, broadcasters, media and commercial partners. We are hugely confident we will build on this success at our next World Championships in London, Great Britain, in 2017.

“The event brings many benefits to the host city and we aim for the 2019 hosts to capitalise on the continued growth of the sport, especially in the year leading up to Tokyo 2020.”

Over 167 hours of action was broadcast from the Doha 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships by more than 40 broadcasters in 12 markets. Television, print and online coverage reached nearly 750 million people.

The 2017 edition of the event will take place in London between 15-23 July.

Ahead of this September’s Paralympic Games in Rio, the first-ever IPC Athletics Asia-Oceania Championships will take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, between 7-12 March, whilst the European Championships will be staged in Grosseto, Italy, from 11-16 June. The fourth annual IPC Athletics Grand Prix series will also begin in Canberra, Australia, on 6 February, before taking in eight other cities ahead of July’s Grand Prix Final in London.