British Athletics announced on Wednesday that they will not be taking part in the 2017 World Under-18 Athletics Championships, to be staged in Nairobi, Kenya from July 12-16.
Next year’s championships will be the final ever World level youth competition after the IAAF said they will now focus on promoting Regional and area Associations events to help with the development of under 18 age group athletes.
British Athletics reasoned that “with events such as the newly launched European Youth Championships in Tbilisi in 2016, opportunities at area-level competition for the youth age group are being further developed and British athletes will now focus their energies on qualifying for the Commonwealth Youth Games being staged in Nassau, Bahamas 19-23 July 2017 as part of their respective home country teams.”