The Tondiraba Ice Hall in Tallinn has stepped in as a replacement for Sofia to host the World Junior Figure Skating Championships ©Getty Images

Estonia’s capital Tallinn has been chosen to replace Sofia as hosts of the World Junior Figure Skating Championships, it has been announced.

The Championships were due to take place in the Bulgarian capital last week but were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It had been the second consecutive year they had to be cancelled because of coronavirus after the 2021 event in Harbin in China did not take place.

The International Skating Union (ISU) invited other countries to apply to replace Sofia and have now awarded the Championships to Tallinn.

The event is due to take place at the Tondiraba Ice Hall between April 13 and 17.

In January, Tallinn hosted the European Figure Skating Championships when the winners included Russia’s 15-year-old Kamila Valieva, the month before hitting the headlines at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing when it emerged she had tested positive for a banned drug during an out-of-competition test in December.  

Tallinn had also hosted the last World Junior Championships to be held in 2020 when Valieva had won the women’s singles.

Tallinn had hosted the last World Junior Figure Skating Championships before COVID-19 in 2020 when the women's singles was won by Russia's Kamila Valieva ©Getty Images
Tallinn had hosted the last World Junior Figure Skating Championships before COVID-19 in 2020 when the women's singles was won by Russia's Kamila Valieva ©Getty Images

It will be the third time Tallinn has staged the Championships having also hosted them in 2015 when Evgenia Medvedeva went on to lift the title three years before winning the Olympic silver medal at Pyeongchang 2018.

Madvedeva is one of 10 Russian winners of the women’s singles in the last 12 editions of the Championships.

The winners have included Alina Zagitova, the winner at Taipei in 2017 before claiming the Olympic gold medal at Pyeongchang 2018, and Alexandra Trusova, the 2018 and 2019 champion and the Olympic silver medallist at Beijing 2022.

There is guaranteed to be a winner from a different country this year as the ISU have banned skaters from Russia, along with those from Belarus, following the invasion of Ukraine.

Estonia shares a 300-kilometre border with Russia and the ISU have promised to monitor the situation in the region during the build-up to the Championships.

"The safety and security of all participants at ISU events remain a top priority and the ISU Council will continue to closely monitor the situation in Ukraine and any COVID-19 developments and their impact on the ISU activity and will take additional steps if and when required," the world governing body said in a statement.