Almaty, Kazakhstan, September 29, 2020: United World Wrestling has updated its events calendar for the 2021 season resulting in two major events in Asia – the Asian Championships and the Asian Olympic Qualifier – being staged in the original host cities.
Almaty, Kazakhstan will host the 2021 Asian Championships from February 16-21 according to the schedule of Continental Championships released by the world wrestling governing body.
The following month, from March 26-28, Xian, China will stage the Asian Olympic Qualifier.
Both these events were due to be held this year but were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Xian actually lost the chance to stage the Asian Olympic Qualifier with the tournament being relocated to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, earlier this year.
But concerns over the coronavirus outbreak forced authorities in Kyrgyzstan to cancel the event. Now UWW has decided that the original host city, Xian, will organise the Asian Olympic Qualifier in March 2021.
UWW has also scheduled the Africa and Oceania Olympic Qualifier and the European Olympic Qualifier in March. Budapest will host the European event from March 18-21 while El Jadida, Morocco will host the African and Oceania tournament from March 12-14.