CHENNAI : It seems the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships, scheduled to be held in Lucknow from August 27-30, will be the only chance for Indian athletes to qualify for the World Championships in September.Another qualifying event — India Grand Prix 5 which is scheduled to be held in Chennai on September 1 — could be cancelled, according to Athletics Federation of India (AFI) secretary CK Valson.
“The athletes will barely have any time and energy to come from Lucknow to Chennai within a day. It is not practical to conduct the tournament in such short time,” he said.The inter-state meet was initially supposed to be held in the last week of July in Kolkata, giving athletes a second opportunity to qualify for the World Championships in Qatar.
However, it was postponed due to various factors, including the West Bengal Athletics Association’s inability to host the event during that time. Valson also ruled out the possibility of bringing forward the Grand Prix 5. “It is impossible to host such an event in such a short period of time,” he said.