Bhubaneswar to host World Indoor Athletics; India only 4th Asian host

The 2017 Asian Athletics Championships at Kalinga Stadium saw the emergence of a 19-year-old Neeraj Chopra — then a junior world No. 1 — on the senior continental scene as he clinched the gold medal and a meet record in front of the packed crowd at the venue.

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After 11 years of that defining moment, Bhubaneswar is set to host the World Indoor Athletics Championships, in a first not just for Odisha but also the country.

On Thursday, during the World Athletics Council meeting in Torun, Poland, which is the venue for the 2026 edition of the World Athletics Indoor Championships, India was chosen as the host of the multi-sports event that headlines the likes of Armand Duplantis and Keely Hodgkinson, two years from now.




“India will host the 2028 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Bhubaneswar,” AFI president Bahadur Singh Sagoo said in a statement. “The global competition will be held at Kalinga’s Indoor Stadium.” The selection of an Indian venue — after a process that had the Kalinga Stadium Sports Complex indoor facility inspected by a two-member World Athletics team in Jan and given the subsequent clearance — vindicates India’s aspiration to host the 2036 Olympics. It is also a testament to Bhubaneswar becoming the sporting destination for track and field athletics in India.

Apart from the 2017 continental event, the Kalinga Stadium has also hosted the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze Level Competition last year, which attracted more than 200 athletes from different parts of the globe. It will also be hosting the inaugural National Indoors Athletics Championships next week. The two-day national event could be the warmup for the worlds event in two years. Organised by World Athletics, the World Indoor Athletics Championships is a biennial track and field competition that first took place in 1985 in Paris.

India will become only the fourth Asian nation to host the championships, with the one in Bhubaneswar being the 22nd edition of the meet.

However, the 21st edition of the event, set to kick off in Poland’s Torun on Friday, will not see any Indian athlete in action. But with the next edition now taking place at home, the crowd at Kalinga would once again hope for a rising Indian star, like Chopra did nine years back.

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