"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", Adille Sumariwalla. 2002 Asian Games shot put gold medallist Bahadur Singh Sagoo has been elected as the new AFI chief
Neeraj Chopra (Pic: File Pic)
India's star and Olympic gold and silver medallist Neeraj Chopra will headline a star-studded global javelin event. The mega event will be hosted by India itself, most likely in September, according to the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).
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This event is an addition to the various number of competitions India has shown interest to host.
Outgoing AFI president Adille Sumariwalla confirmed that India has expressed interest in hosting the 2029 World Championships, as well as the 2027 World Relays. The AFI has already submitted its expression of interest to host the 2028 World Junior Championships when the international body chief Sebastian Coe visited the country in November last.
"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," Sumariwalla, whose 12-year tenure as AFI chief ended on Tuesday, said on the first day of the AFI Annual General Meeting (AGM).
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"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."
Sumariwalla later told PTI that the event is most likely to be held in September.
2002 Asian Games shot put gold medallist Bahadur Singh Sagoo has been elected as the new AFI chief.
Talking about the big global events India is hoping to host in the next four years, 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."
"We might also do a World Half Marathon," he said.
India will also host the World Athletics Continental Tour bronze-level competition in August. This will be the best global athletics event hosted by India after the country last hosted a global event in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Earlier, India was also been a host of the World Half Marathon Championships in 2004.
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.
With the bid to host the 2026 Olympics, there are several other athletics events in line that India is either hosting or bidding.
The bronze-level Tour meet is below the gold and silver levels.
(With PTI Inputs)