Olympic gold and silver medallist Neeraj Chopra is all set to headline a star-studded global javelin competition which India will host most likely in September, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) announced on Tuesday. Outgoing Athletics Federation Of India president Adille Sumariwalla confirmed the news on the sidelines of AFI Annual General Meeting
Sumariwalla said, “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,”
He added, “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 to hold international athletic meet
Besides global javelin competition, 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.
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.
India has expressed interest to host the 2029 World Championships, as well as the 2027 World Relays. Sumariwalla said, “Bids are open at the moment for (2028) World Junior Championships, 2029 World Championships, World Relays (2027) and India is going to bid for all of them. We have put in our expression of interest and so the process has started.”
(With PTI Inputs)
