The European Junior and Under-23 Championships, which were to have been held in Rovaniemi in Finland from September 10 to 20 have been put back a year and lost their Olympic qualifying status.

It is the third continental junior championships to be moved from September.

The African Youth and Junior Championships in Kenyan capital Nairobi moved to the last week of November, while the new dates for the Pan American Junior Championships in Colombia are December 5 to 11.

Unlike those two, the European event is not rescheduled before the end of Tokyo 2020 qualifying, which finishes on April 30.

It is put back to an unspecified date next autumn, about a year away, and will remain in Rovaniemi.

The Finnish Government has imposed travel restrictions that would bar entry to teams from 21 European nations.

As a result, the Executive Board of the European Weightlifting Federation decided yesterday to postpone the competition.

Among the champions at last year’s European Junior Championships was the Latvian Ritvars Suharevs, who is well placed in the Olympic 81-kilogram rankings.

The last attempt made in Tokyo 2020 qualifying was by American Sarah Robles in the women’s super-heavyweights at the Rogue Weightlifting Challenge in Columbus, Ohio on March 8.

The loss of the Rovaniemi event means the earliest anybody can return to action in qualifying is on October 31, which is scheduled as day one of competition at the European Championships in Moscow.

The gap between the last qualifying attempt and the next one will therefore be at least 237 days, and could be extended if travel restrictions and other conditions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic remain in place in the coming weeks.

The third phase of Olympic qualifying, which was due to end on April 30 this year, will now run until the same date next year.

Eight qualifying competitions remain on the calendar in 2020, in Russia, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Barbados and Kenya.

Whether any of them will take place this year remains to be seen.