National Inter-State Athletics C'ships in June postponed as AFI decides to prepare new calendar

The National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship scheduled to be held in June has been postponed after the national federation 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 it was to serve as a qualifying event for the Tokyo Games which were now pushed by one year 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 Athletics Federation of India said that a new competition calendar as well as fresh training programme for national campers will be prepared by the Planning Committee after discussions with coaches and foreign experts.

"In wake of the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and postponement of 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as other international competitions, the Planning Commitee of AFI has decided to prepare a new domestic calendar for senior athletes," the AFI said.

"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 had to postpone its season opener 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.