India to host 2028 World Indoor Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar

New Delhi, Mar 19: India will host the World Indoor Athletics Championships for the first time in 2028 in Bhubaneswar as the international body on Thursday awarded the hosting rights of the prestigious event to the country at its council meeting in Torun, Poland.

The decision was taken at the World Athletics Council meeting a day before the start of World Indoor Athletics Championships (March 20-22) in the Polish city.

“India has been awarded the World Indoor Athletics Championships for the year 2028,” World Athletics vice president Adille Sumariwalla told PTI from Poland.

AFI had revealed its bid for the 2028 World Indoor Championships earlier this year.

A two-member team from World Athletics had visited the state-of-the-art indoor facility at the Kalinga Stadium Complex in Bhubaneswar in January.

Along with Sumariwalla, also a World Athletics Council member and a former Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president, officials of the Odisha government had travelled to the Polish city.

AFI president Bahadur Singh Sagoo said the development was an indication of the growing stature of Indian athletics in the international stage.

“The World Athletics 2028 Indoor Athletics Championships allotted to India mark the growing stature of Indian athletics. Indian track and field has been in sharp focus since ace javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra won back-to-back Olympic and World medals,” he said.

New Zealand had also earlier expressed interest to host the 2028 World Indoor Championships, a biennial showpiece for indoor events.

“Since India was in the fray, we were not allowed inside when the decision to choose the host city was taken. Later World Athletics announced that India has been awarded the Championships,” technical committee chairman and former AFI secretary Ravinder Chaudhry said from Poland.

World Indoor Championships typically has 26 events — 13 each for men and women — to be competed across three days. The 4x400m mixed relay will be held for the first time in this edition in Poland.

The 13 events are 60m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m, 60m hurdles, 4x400m relay, high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump, shot put, heptathlon (pentathlon for women).

India has also made a bid to host the 2028 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships at the state-of-the-art indoor facility at the Kalinga Stadium complex in Bhubaneswar which was inaugurated in 2024.

A two-member delegation of the Asian Athletics Association (AAA) had made an inspection visit last month.

The Indoor facility at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar is also hosting the inaugural edition of the National Indoor Athletics Championships from March 24 to 25.

The indoor athletics centre has a 200m synthetic track, an 80m plus 20m running track, and designated areas for long jump, triple jump, pole vault, and shot put, each meticulously designed to meet specific athletic requirements.

The facility features 60 twin-sharing rooms for those undergoing full-time coaching.

India has made bids for a slew of big-ticket global athletics events in line with the country’s desire to host the 2036 Olympics.

The country is bidding for the 2028 World U20 Athletics Championships as well as the 2031 World (Senior) Athletics Championships — both in Ahmedabad. The Gujarat capital is hosting the 2030 Commonwealth Games.