 "Besides organising the event, Neeraj Chopra will also compete in the javelin throw competition. Image: Reuters")
Latest in India’s ambition to host world-class athletics events is a global javelin competition headlined by Olympic gold and silver medallist Neeraj Chopra which will most likely be held in September. The exclusive javelin throw event will include the world’s best 10 throwers, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) announced on Tuesday.
“There will be a top javelin competition in India in which the top-10 javelin throwers in the world will compete. This will be an invitation tournament to be held later this year,” outgoing AFI president Adille Sumariwalla, whose 12-year tenure as AFI chief ended on Tuesday, said on Day 1 of the AFI Annual General Meeting (AGM).
“Neeraj Chopra will be there. He is part of the team that is organising the event, along with JSW, a foreign firm and the AFI are together creating this competition. This is being done as there is so much interest in javelin with August 7 – when Chopra won the Tokyo Olympics gold – being observed as National Javelin Day.”
India aims to host multiple athletic events
The javelin throw event will be in addition to a slew of competitions India has expressed its interest in hosting, including the marquee 2029 World Championships and the 2027 World Relays. The AFI has already submitted its expression of interest to host the 2028 World Junior Championships when the international body chief Sebastian Coe visited India last November.
India is hosting a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze-level event in Bhubaneswar on August 10. This will be the first global athletics meet to be hosted by India after the international permit meets, held in the country in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIndia has also hosted World Half Marathon Championships in 2004 in New Delhi.
The Continental Tour is an annual series of track-and-field competitions held under the aegis of World Athletics and it forms the second tier of international one-day meetings after the prestigious Diamond League.
The bronze-level Tour meet is below the gold and silver levels.
The slew of global athletics events India is either hosting or bidding is in line with the country’s bid to host the 2026 Olympics.
Just before the start of the AFI AGM, 2002 Asian Games shot put gold medallist Bahadur Singh Sagoo was elected unopposed as the new AFI chief.
With agency inputs