The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games is set to begin 24 hours later than originally planned. 

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the sporting calendar, and the move will now allow those athletes competing at the delayed World Athletics Championships in the US to have more time to recover. 

The event finishes on July 24 and the Commonwealth Games will now run from July 28-August 8.

Chairman of Birmingham 2022 John Crabtree said: "The Covid-19 pandemic has had a seismic impact on the international sporting calendar for the next couple of years.

"This has understandably needed to be reshaped and rewritten and we've spent the last few weeks working with other organisations to align, collaborate, and analyse what these changes mean for Birmingham 2022, our athletes, our spectators, our TV viewers, and our partners.

"As well as this slight change to our dates we are working on a detailed competition schedule for our 19 sports, looking at how we can maximise the recovery time for those athletes who will be looking to participate in more than one major event in two years' time."

The new dates will also avoid a clash with the women’s European football Championship semi-finals which will be played towards the end of July.