Asian Athletics Association (AAA) officials inspected the indoor athletics track at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Friday regarding India’s willingness to host the 2028 Asian Indoor Athletics meet.Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had submitted its bid to host the event last year and proposed Bhubaneswar as the host city. With that in mind, director of competitions Cuddikotta Valson and secretary general of the Asian body A Shuggumarran visited the venue and met with the govt officials.Also present at the meeting, AFI treasurer BE Stanley was pleased with how the inspection went. “We had a meeting with the sports secretary and director of sports of Odisha govt and they have presented a beautiful presentation by which the Asian delegation was impressed,” said Stanley in a social media post.As for the Asian Athletics officials, they gave a detailed presentation on their requirements and according to sources, one area that they have asked the officials to address is to make facilities to accommodate more fans.“The final decision of the allotment of the competition will come during the Asian Under-20 Championships in Hong Kong where our delegation will give their presentation and the allotment will be done based on that,” Stanley added.With the final presentation fast approaching, one expects AFI to go all out to ensure that the maiden National Indoor Athletics meet, scheduled for next month, is a resounding success. At the moment only a few participants have confirmed their entries, though that situation could change significantly in the coming weeks.The city, which also hopes to host World Indoor Athletics in 2028, had already hosted Asian Athletics Championships in 2017 and its first world athletics meet when the Continental Tour Bronze level meet took place last year. It is now preparing to hold the Continental Tour Silver level meet in Aug this year.
