Athletes rejig training plans as Athletics Federation of India update domestic calendar

Athletes aspiring to qualify for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games scheduled to be held in September will have to rejig their training schedule as the dates of the two main domestic track and field competitions have been preponed by a month.

The National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships and National Interstate Senior Athletics Championships were scheduled for the month of June and July and were qualifying events for the Asian Athletics Championships and Asian Games in China.

The Federation Cup will now be held from May 15, instead of June 15, Adille Sumariwalla, president of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), said on Tuesday, April 18. The Federation Cup will be held in Ranchi, while the Inter-State competition will be organized in Bhubaneswar.

“The dates of the domestic competitions have been changed as the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has also changed the official deadline to send entries for the Asian Games scheduled to be held in China,” Sumariwalla explained. “Earlier the official deadline was 30 days prior to the start of the competition. Now, it is 75 days as the new official deadline to send entries prior to the start of the Asian Games.”

While the AFI acted accordingly following the OCA communication, athletes aiming to qualify for the Asian Athletics Championships in July and Asian Games in September will have to make drastic changes in the training cycle, a senior international athlete said.

“We were preparing to give good results in June to qualify for the Asian Athletics Championships,” the senior international athlete added. “With the change of dates of the Federation Cup, we have roughly three weeks to adapt to the new training cycle.”

Adaption to the new training cycle, the senior athlete said, will take at least three to four weeks.

“Since the AFI announced the 2023 annual track and field calendar in January, the athletes have been training accordingly,” a national athletics coach said. “It will be a challenging task to get physically and mentally fit for the athletes to compete in May.”

“The National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships will be the last domestic competition to qualify for the Asian Games,” the AFI president added.

Barring a few Indian athletes, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games champion in men’s javelin throw Neeraj Chopra, have already achieved a qualifying mark for the Asian Games and the 2023 World Athletics Championships scheduled to be held in Budapest, Hungary.

Meanwhile, CK Valson, director of competition for the Asian Athletics Association, said the last date to send entries for the Asian Athletics Championships is June 12.

“The respective national athletics federations should send entries by name 30 days prior to the official start of the continental competition,” Valson told Sportskeeda over the phone from Bangkok.

However, World Athletics has not changed the 15 day deadline to send the entries by name.

“As of now there is no communication from World Athletics regarding the change of date to send the entries by name,” Sumariwalla added.