The event in Japan was initially scheduled for September 2021 but was pushed back by 12 months to avoid clashing with the postponed Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Officials in Kobe now wish to defer their hosting duties until 2024 and have asked World Para Athletics for a further postponement.

"Following consideration of the ongoing situation presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Local Organising Committee of the Kobe 2022 World Para Athletics Championships views that a postponement is the right choice, and has made the decision to place a request regarding postponement of the Championships to the spring of 2024 to the International Paralympic Committee and World Para Athletics", a statement on the event website reads.

If the request it granted, it will mean there will be a four-year gap between the last World Para Athletics Championships and the next edition.

Dubai in the United Arab Emirates staged the most recent World Championships in November 2019.

Paris is slated to hold the biennial event in 2023, one year before it stages the Paralympic Games.

That would see France become the first nation to hold the event on three occasions after Lille 2002 and Lyon 2013.

Britain is the only other country to have held the World Championships twice - at Birmingham 1998 and London 2017.

insidethegames has contacted the IPC and World Para Athletics for comment.