Gabriel Ramos Rodriguez, director of the Guadalajara 2022 Organising Committee, told insidethegames that the relocation "made sense" as the Mexican city prepares to stage World Taekwondo’s flagship event.

Cancun was named as the host after Wuxi lost the hosting rights following the postponement of the 2021 edition due to COVID-19 restrictions in China.

The Mexican seaside city secured 52 per cent of the vote, seeing off competition from Baku in Azerbaijan and Beirut in Lebanon at an extraordinary meeting of the World Taekwondo Council in January.

However, a decision was made in May to relocate 2,000 kilometres west across Mexico to Guadalajara.

Political and financial difficulties were cited by World Taekwondo as the reasons for the move at the time.

Ramos Rodriquez said that Cancun was initially chosen by Mexico as the host because it was scheduled to stage the World Taekwondo Grand Prix in 2020 before the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Ramos Rodriguez admitted that further analysis by organisers found that the location was "too small" to host the World Taekwondo Championships.

"The Convention Center in Cancun is the perfect place for the Grand Prix final - one court and 4,000 seats - but for the World Championships you need five courts, plus training and warm-up areas," said Ramos Rodriguez.

"We didn’t have enough space at that venue."

Ramos Rodriguez said the size of Guadalajara meant that it was also able to attract more spectators to the Centro Acuático CODE Metropolitano.

"Cancun is beautiful but it’s a holiday destination," said Ramos Rodriguez.

"The World Championships should be planned for the general attendance.

"We need to inspire the new generation, we need to bring kids and families.

"When we did the evaluation we realised that to have a family of five or six it would be really tough to go to Cancun.

"We could have a World Championships in Cancun.

"It would be a very nice set up but it would be for more television than the general attendance.

"This is a big event for Guadalajara so people will travel here.

"We are using more than 20 hotels for athletes, special guests and people that want to attend.

"We are also selling tickets so it made sense to go to a city like Guadalajara instead of Cancun.

"Taekwondo is a huge sport in Mexico so we need a big venue and a big city to host this event and bring people from other cities to enjoy top-level competition.

"It’s going to make a positive impact on Mexico and the athletes."