NEW DELHI: India will host a World Athletics Continental Tour level event for the first time on August 10 next year, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) said.
The bronze-level Continental Tour athletics event will take place in Bhubaneswar, according to AFI’s 2025 season competitive calendar, as per Olympics.com. The meet is named as ‘Indian Open’.
The Continental Tour is an annual series of track and field competitions, that comes under the second tier of global meetings after the elite-level Diamond League. It was launched in 2020 as a successor to the World Challenge Series and features four levels, gold, silver, bronze and challenger.
“The Continental Tour will be a good opportunity for the Indian team to showcase its potential on home ground before the world championship s in September,” AFI president Adille Sumariwalla said, according to Olympics.com.
The World Athletics Championships 2025, to be held from September 13-21 in Tokyo, will be the top athletics event for next year.
The last time India hosted such an international athletics event was during 2017 when the Asian Athletics Championships were held at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. India also hosted the 2013 Asian Championships in Pune at the Balewadi Sports Complex.
The Senior National Federation Cup to be held in Haryana from April 21 to 24, will be the qualification event for the Asian Athletic Championships to be held in South Korea in May.
India’s 2025 domestic athletics season will kickstart with national cross-country championships from January 12 in Uttar Pradesh, National Inter-District Athletics Meet in February and the Indian Open throws and jumps competitions to be organised in March.
“The AFI has also introduced regional competition from next year to give more exposure to athletes on the fringes. The regional competitions will commence in April,” Sumariwalla said. (ANI)