Hectic 2023 track and field season ahead for elite Indian athletes 

The 2023 track and field season will be quite hectic for the elite Indian athletes. The Asian Athletic Championships will resume in 2023 after a gap of two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Athletics Championships is also scheduled to be held next year in Hungary.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI)'s domestic season will commence from January but the first major track and field competition will be held in June. It will act as a qualifier for the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships, to be held in Pattaya, Thailand, from July 12-16.

Adille Sumariwalla, president of the AFI, has said that next year’s domestic calendar has been prepared with an eye on international competitions in 2023.

“The AFI is confident that Indian athletics will continue to grow in the right direction,” Sumariwalla told Sportskeeda.

The Indian team will compete at the World Race Walking Team Championships to be held in Muscat from March 4-5.

The winners of the continental meet in July will get direct qualification for the 2023 World Athletics Championships, scheduled to take place in Budapest from August 19-27.

The postponed 2022 Asian Games will also be held in 2023 in China.

While the 26th National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships is scheduled to be held in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, from June 12-15, the 62nd National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships will be conducted in Ranchi, Jharkhand, from July 26-30.

The athletic season, however, starts with the 57th National Cross-Country Championships on January 7 and 8 in Assam.

The AFI flagship event, the National Inter District Junior Athletics, will be held in Patna, Bihar, from January 12-14.

“We are happy that the National Inter District Junior Athletics competition will resume after a gap of three years. It was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic,” Sumariwalla added.

The 10th Indian Open Racewalk will be held on February 14 and 15 in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Since Kerala is the venue for the national camp, particularly in 400m, most of the domestic competitions are also being held in the southern region of the country.

The second edition of the Indian Open Throws and Jumps competition, meanwhile, is to be held in Bellary, Karnataka, on March 1 and 2.

The major attraction will be the fourth edition of the Indian Open 400m. The competition will be held on March 5 in Thiruvananthapuram.

The first two legs of the Indian Grand Prix (IGP) will be organized in Kerala. While the opening leg is scheduled on March 20, the second leg will be held on March 27.

The third leg will take place on April 2 in Bengaluru and the fourth IGP will follow on April 10. The fifth leg of the Indian Grand Prix has been allotted to Punjab. The event will be held in Patiala on September 10.

As usual, the National Open Athletics Championships will be held at the fag end of the season in October.