Asian Athletics Championship: From swanky Kalinga Stadium to Indian athletes, here's your guide to the event

Odisha is set to host the 22nd edition of the Asian Athletics Championship (AAC), where over 1,200 athletes and officials from 44 countries in Asia will take part in one of the largest sporting Asian athletics events to be in India. This edition of the tournament will be the biggest event in the competition’s history, with the participation of over 800 athletes from 45 countries. It is for the third time that the tournament will be held in India after being first held in 1977. The AAC has been hosted by New Delhi in 1989 and Pune in 2013 earlier. The event holds a lot of importance as the winners of the Asian Athletics Championship will be given direct entry into the IAFF World Championships, which is slated to take place in August. There are 42 events in total — 21 for men and 21 for women. [caption id=“attachment_3778597” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Bhubaneswar’s refurbished Kalinga Stadium. Image courtesy: Twitter/@NaveenPatnaik[/caption] Venue: This edition of the AAC will be hosted at Bhubaneshwar’s Kalinga Stadium, which was given a dramatic makeover after Ranchi pulled out to leave the city just 90 days to prepare itself. The stadium boasts an Olympic-level synthetic track, a renovated warm-up track, state-of-the-art high mast floodlights and newly-installed elevators. Schedule and tickets: The event will last for four days, with the opening ceremony scheduled to take place at 5.30 pm on 5 July in Bhubaneswar. You can check out the schedule for all the days on the official Odisha 2017 games website. The online tickets for the mega sporting event are available at eventsnow.com at Rs 50. Indian athletes: A total of 95 Indian athletes will participate in the much-anticipated tournament. Sports Minister Vijay Goel, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, central ministers, and other dignitaries will likely attend the inaugural ceremony. Where to watch? Doordarshan Sports will telecast the AAC from 5-9 July, including the opening ceremony at 5:30 PM on Wednesday.

Here’s the list of all the participants: The Men squad: 100m and 200m: Amiya Kumar Mallick 400m: Muhammed Anas, Amoj Jacob and Arokia Rajiv 800m: Jinson Johnson and Vishambhar Keolkar 1500m: Ajay Kumar Saroj and Siddhantha Adhikari 5000m: G Lakshmanan and Murli Kumar Gavit 10,000m: Lakshmanan, Gopi Thonakal and Kalidas Hirave 3000m steeplechase: Naveen Kumar and Durga Bahadur Budha 110m hurdles: Siddhant Thingalaya* and Prem Kumar 400m hurdles: Jabir MP, Santhosh Kumar T and Durgesh Kumar Pal Pole vault: S Siva High jump: Chethan B and Ajay Kumar Long jump: Ankit Sharma, Samsheer SE and Siddharth Mohan Naik* Triple jump: Arpinder Singh and Karthik U* Shot put: Tajinder Pal Toor, Jasdeep Singh Dhillon and Omprakash Singh Karhana Discus throw: Vikas Gowda*, Dharamraj Yadav and Kirpal Singh Hammer throw: Niraj Kumar Javelin throw: Neeraj Chopa, Davinder Singh Kang and Abhishek Singh Decathlon: Jagtar Singh and Abhishek Shetty 4x100m relay: Amiya Kumar Mallick, Jyotishankar Debnath, Anuroop John, VK Elakkiya Dasan, Pravin Muthukumaran and Chintha Sudhakar 4x400m relay: Muhammed Anas, Amoj Jaco, Arokia Rajiv, Sachi Roby, Mohan Kumar and Kunju Muhammed. The Women squad: 100m and 200m: Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda 400m: Nirmala, MR Poovamma and Jisna Mathew 800m: Tintu Luka, Archana Adhav and Lili Das 1500m: Monika Choudhary 5000m: L Suriya and Sanjivani Jadhav 10,000m: L Suriya, Sanjivani Jadhav and Meenu 3000m steeplechase: Sudha Singh and Parul Chaudhary 100m hurdles: Nayana James 400m hurdles: Anu R, Jauna Murmu and Arpitha M. Pole vault: KM Sangeeta; High jump: Sahana Kumari and Swapna Barman Long jump: Nayana James*, Neena V and G Karthika Triple jump: Sheena NV and Joyline Murali Lobo*. Shot put: Manpreet Kaur, Ramanpreet Kaur and Anamika Das Discus throw: Kamalpreeet Kaur Bal, Seema Punia and Himani Singh Hammer throw: Sarita R Singh and Gunjan Singh Javelin throw: Annu Rani, Poonam Rani Singh and Suman Devi. Heptathlon: Swapna Barman, Purnima Hembram and Liksy Joseph. 4x100m relay: Dutee Chand, Srabani Nanda, Merlin Joseph, Reena George, Ruma Sarkar and Himashree Roy 4x400m relay: Nirmala, Poovamma, Jisna Mathew, Vijayakumari GK, Sarita Ben Gayakwad and Debashree Mazumdar.