BHUBANESWAR: The World Continental Tour Bronze which is scheduled to be held at Kalinga Stadium here on Sunday, will be the new beginning in the Indian athletic arena, said World Athletics vice-president Adille Sumariwalla in a press meet here at Kalinga Stadium on Saturday.
“The Athletic Federation of India (AFI) is on path to host the Silver, Diamond league and the Gold tour very soon. Our ultimate goal is to host the World Athletics Championships. The bidding procedure is not that easy, however we are on the way to bid for 2029 and 2031 World Athletics Championships for Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar” added Sumariwalla.
Altogether 160 athletes including 93 Indian athletes from across 17 countries will participate in 19 events — nine each for men and women and one for mixed team. The list includes the fastest Indian on track, local favourite Animesh Kujur, who now owns the national records in both men’s 100m and 200m sprints. On the basis of world ranking, he also qualified for the World Athletics Championships in men’s 200m event. “Ahead of the World championship, I am having two events, the Continental Tour at my home turf and another one is the National Senior Athletics championships. My all effort to put my best effort to make another personal best timing,” said Animesh.
Many iconic athletes of the country including long jumper Murali Sreeshankar has been on a three-event winning streak since returning from injury earlier this year and the Asian and Commonwealth Games silver medallist will look to build up more steam in the lead up to Tokyo25.
Mohammed Afsal, the men’s 800m national record holder, will also be in action in Bhubaneswar alongside Shaili Singh (women’s long jump), Vithya Ramraj (women’s 400m), Anu Rani (Women’s javelin), Sachin Yadav (men’s javelin) and several others.
As per the AFI 10 athletes already qualified for the World Athletics Championship to be held at Tokyo 13-21 September 2025. The AFI President Bahadur Singh Sagoo expressed “the Continental Tour will be a right platform for our athletes to grab the tickets for Tokyo. We are hopeful four more Indian athletes will achieve the Tokyo qualification mark at Bhubaneswar”.