Ranchi pulls out, Bhubaneswar likely to host Asian Athletics

With the Jharkhand government expressing its inability to host the Asian Athletics Championships in Ranchi in June, Bhubaneswar has emerged as the front-runner to stage the continental event.
A team of Athletics Federation of India (AFI) officials made an inspection visit of Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar recently to find out the condition of the venue.
The AFI secretary C K Valson said that the final host venue will be known in a couple of days.
"The Odisha government has expressed its willingness to host the Asian Championships and we have made an inspection of the Kalinga Stadium there," Valson told PTI today.

"We will know Odisha government's final decision whether they will host the event or not on Tuesday," he added.
The Asian Athletics Championships was to be held from June 1-4 in Ranchi but the Jharkhand capital has pulled out of hosting the event.
"The Jharkhand government has some issues on spending the required funds for the Asian Championships. They have told us this," Valson said.
India has hosted the event earlier on two occasions -- in New Delhi (1989) and Pune (2013).