The British indoor athletics championships have been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, governing body British Athletics announced on Friday.

The championships were to have taken place next month in Glasgow and would have acted as a qualification event for the European Indoor Championships scheduled to be held in Torun, Poland, on March 5-7.

British Athletics said while elite sport was able to continue in Britain despite a rapidly rising death toll as authorities fight a more infectious variant of Covid-19, the logistics of bringing several hundred athletes to the event and preventing the spread of the virus were too problematic.

"The decision was taken in light of the ongoing pandemic," the federation said in a statement.

"At the present time, the process of testing all those attending the Championships from across the UK, seen as an essential measure, would not sufficiently mitigate the risks."

British Athletics said it hoped that athletes hoping to qualify through the February 20-21 championships would still have opportunities to do so.