A decision was made on Wednesday 1st December by the executive board and senior staff to withdraw Team Wales from the Commonwealth Championships, due to the increasing risks and concerns surrounding the COVID pandemic, particularly due to the new Omicron variant.

The health and wellbeing of the full team of lifters and staff was always the number one priority when this trip was planned and the decision was made with the best interests of the team as a whole in mind.

Since Wales withdrew its team, the UK as well as other nations were added to a red list of countries in Uzbekistan and several more nations were barred from entering the country altogether. Many teams have had to make the difficult decision to withdraw their lifters due to the rising risks associated with the virus and travel restrictions. This has lead to the Commonwealth Championships being cancelled altogether, whist the World Championships are still currently scheduled to go ahead as planned, with fewer athletes able to attend.

We now await announcements from the Commonwealth Weightlifting Federation about the qualification procedure for the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and a number of the Welsh team will now turn their focus to the Welsh Championships on 11th December and the British Championships in January 2022.

Athlete Representative and team member Gareth Evans says:

"This is a very disappointing situation for all Welsh athletes who had been selected to compete, as this would have been one of the main qualification events to secure a top 6 ranking spot for qualification for next year's Commonwealth Games.

However, I fully understand and respect the decision that has been made to not travel due to the developing risks associated with COVID and would like to thank the NGB for their foresight and swift decision-making in removing the Welsh team from the competition, in advance of the cancellation of the event altogether.

Focus for these lifters will now look towards January's British Championships, where I am sure everyone will perform well, working towards securing a spot at the Commonwealth Games."