AFI to make fresh calendar, National Inter-State Athletics Championships postponed
March 30, 2020
The National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship scheduled for June has been postponed after the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), on Sunday, decided to frame a new calendar following the suspension of global sporting events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The championship was to be held from June 25 to 28 in Bengaluru and was to serve as a qualifying event for the Tokyo Olympics, which has now been pushed to 2021 in view of the worsening global health crisis.
“We will have this championship later after August if the situation becomes stable by May or June,” deputy national chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair told PTI.
The AFI said a new competition calendar as well as a fresh training programme for national campers will be prepared by the Planning Committee after discussions with coaches and foreign experts.
“Under the new circumstances, the complete domestic calendar of the year 2020 needs to be changed, especially, the senior competitions. Besides competitions, we have also asked coaches to start reworking on their training programmes,” said AFI President Adille Sumariwalla.
The National Open Athletics Championship which was to be held in Chennai from August 16-19 will also be held later.
Earlier, the AFI also postponed the season opening Indian Grand Prix series, which was to be held in March, as well as Federation Cup Senior Championships (April 10-13 in Patiala).
After the postponement of the Tokyo Games, Indian Olympic Association President Narinder Batra had also asked the national federations to submit the training and competition programmes of their respective athletes.
