New Delhi, Mar 9 (IANS): The Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has postponed the 73rd men's and 36th women's Senior National Championships, scheduled to be held at Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu from March 12 to 18, due to a spike in coronavirus cases, said a federation official.

The federation has also decided to call off Youth and Junior National Championships, which were slated to be held in April in Madhya Pradesh.

The postponement of the national competitions was decided by the IWF executive committee via an online meeting recently. Since the Tamil Nadu government has imposed strict entry rules for visitors from other states, like Kerala and Maharashtra, fresh dates for the two championships will now be announced.

The venue for senior competition will remain the same.

Due to a surge in Covid-19 cases the Tamil Nadu government's fresh guidelines has made it mandatory for people to undergo a 14-day quarantine even if a person has RT-PCR negative report.