The 2021 Junior Pentathlon World Championships will be held in Alexandria, Egypt, from 11 to 18 July for athletes under 21 years old. The one-week event will be held at the campus of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport. The competition will officially kick-off on 12 July with the girls relay followed by the boys relay on 13 July. The girls' semi-finals will be held on 14 July followed by the boys' semi-finals on 15 July. The girls and boys finals will take place on 16 and 17 July respectively, followed by the mixed relay on 18 July. The tournament will serve as the last warm-up for the Egyptian pentathletes who have already qualified for this month's Tokyo Olympic Games: Ahmed Al-Guindi, Salma Ayman and Amira Qandil. Altogether, 165 athletes - 92 male and 73 females - representing 27 countries, will take part in the event which was scheduled to be held in the summer of 2020 but was postponed to February 2021 because of Covid-19, as were most world championships as well as the Olympic Games. In January 2021, the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) issued a joint statement with the Egyptian Modern Pentathlon Federation and the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport in which it was announced that the executive board of UIPM had voted to postpone the UIPM 2021 Junior World Championships and UIPM 2021 Youth World Championships, both of which were scheduled to take place in February 2021. The championships were rescheduled for Alexandria on the following dates: the UIPM 2021 Youth World Championships (U19/U17) would take place from 4 to 10 July while the UIPM 2021 Junior World Championships would be held from 11 to 18 July. Last month and following the success of the World Pentathlon and Laser Run Championships which were held in Egypt, the UIPM decided to go ahead with the U-21 Juniors Championship as scheduled in July but put off the combined U19/U17 Youth World Championship until September at the same venue of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport. UIPM President Klaus Schormann had in January expressed his regrets at having to postpone the UIPM 2021 Junior World Championships and UIPM 2021 Youth World Championships. "The coronavirus pandemic is seriously testing the resolve of most countries around the world and health must be the priority at this uniquely challenging time. I feel very sorry for our junior and youth athletes that they must continue to wait for their chance to compete on the world stage again," Schormann said. "I say to those athletes: be assured that you are the future of our movement. Across our global community we will continue to work tirelessly to provide you with the opportunities you deserve. Keep training in a safe way, listen to the advice of your government and medical experts and look after your health. Your time will come. "While the EB has decided to reschedule these competitions to a later date in 2021, we have every confidence in the local organising committee to organise these competitions in the safest possible circumstances with all precautions in place according to the UIPM guidelines. "I thank our friends from the Egyptian Modern Pentathlon Federation and the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport for their understanding and their patience," Schormann added. President of the Egyptian Modern Pentathlon Federation Sherif Al-Erian said: "We have waited for nearly a full year for official pentathlon competitions to take place again. An extra four-month delay we can all withstand together. "The most important thing is the safety and good health of all our athletes, coaches and other participants. This delay will give more time for all our athletes worldwide to prepare better and thus give everyone a fairer chance in competition. "I thank UIPM, the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, the Egyptian Olympic Committee and the Egyptian Ministry of Sport for their understanding and cooperation in this matter and their full support for the new timing in July. We hope it will be a great competition and experience for all," Al-Erian said. "We will be honoured and privileged to host the upcoming UIPM 2021 Junior and Youth World Championships on our campuses at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport in the beautiful city of Alexandria," said Ismail Abdel-Ghaffar, president of the academy. "We fully comply with and understand the reason behind the postponement of both competitions and thank UIPM and EMPF for all their efforts and collaborations with us in trying to ensure that both competitions are still held in 2021 and are arranged with the highest possible levels of safety and competence. We will be ready in July to welcome you all in Alexandria," Abdel-Ghaffar added. The decision to postpone the competition follows the cancellation of the UIPM 2020 Junior World Championships which was scheduled to take place in Drzonkow (POL) last September, and the UIPM 2020 Youth World Championships U19/U17, which would have been staged in Hurghada, in Egypt, in October. In response to those two cancellations, UIPM agreed to a proposal from Alexandria to host the two competitions in 2021. The next event on the UIPM calendar is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games which will be held from 23 July to 8 August.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 8 July, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
