MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. The 2021 European Taekwondo Championship will be held in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia between April 8 and 11, Vadim Ivanov, the head coach of the Russian national taekwondo team, told TASS on Tuesday.

The championship was initially planned to be held in May, but was postponed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

"There were a lot of changes in the calendar," Ivanov said. "The European Qualification Tournament for the Tokyo Olympics was initially scheduled to be held in January, but the World Taekwondo Federation recommended against holding any tournaments in January and February."

"In this connection, the European Taekwondo Union made a decision to hold the European Championship between April 8 and 11, while the European Qualification Tournament for the Olympics will be organized on May 7-8," he said. "The qualification tournament will be held in Sofia as well."

Eight sets of medals will be at the stake for Taekwondo fighters (four in male and four in female competitions) during the Olympic Games in Japan this year.

Based on the Taekwondo world rankings, Russia was granted four Olympic licenses and is sending to Tokyo Mikhail Artamonov (men’s under 58 kg weight category), Maxim Khramtsov (men’s under 80 kg), Vladislav Larin (men’s over 80 kg) and Tatyana Minina (women’s under 57 kg).

Last March, the IOC (the International Olympic Committee) and the IPC (the International Paralympic Committee) announced a decision to postpone the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Japan for one year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Organizing Committee, stated in late March last year that the Summer Olympic Games in Japan in 2021 would start on July 23 and the Summer Paralympic Games would begin on August 24.