Report: India to bid for World Athletics Championships 2029

The AFI had also expressed intentions to host the 2027 edition of the competition.

On the back of a decent World Athletics Championships 2023 campaign earlier this year, India is now set to host the mega athletics competition for the first time in its history in 2029, a top official in the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) was reported to have said. The AFI had also earlier signalled intentions to bid for the 2027 edition of the World Championships but decided to focus on the 2029 edition instead, as the bidding process for the 2027 event had already started earlier this year.

The World Athletics, the governing body of the sport, has not yet released the timeframe for the bidding process for the 2029 edition.

“We are interested in bidding for the 2029 World Athletics Championships,” AFI senior vice-president Anju Bobby George told PTI, on the sidelines of the AFI Annual General Body meeting. “India has expressed interest in hosting the 2036 Olympics and 2030 Youth Olympics. So, it will be very good if we can host the 2029 World Athletics Championships,” she added.

The last edition of the World Athletics Championships was held in Budapest, Hungary in 2023, where India won one gold medal through Neeraj Chopra in men’s javelin throw. The next edition will be held in Tokyo, Japan in 2025, where India will hope to improve its medal tally.

The World Athletics Championships is the third-largest sporting event in the world, after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, in terms of the number of participating nations and athletes. The event features 49 disciplines across track and field, road running, race walking, and cross-country running. The event is held every two years, except for the years when the Olympic Games are held.

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