The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : India to bid for World Cup

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 24, 2005

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Sport - Athletics

India to bid for World Cup

By K.P. Mohan

NEW DELHI, FEB. 23. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) is to bid for the 10th World Cup athletics championships to be held next year. If allotted, New Delhi will host it.

The meet was to be held in Los Angeles, but the U.S. backed out, leaving the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) with the task of finding a new host at short notice.

The AFI is keen to host the meet in which continental teams and select countries compete. Germany had also evinced interest in stepping in as the host, according to the AFI Secretary, Lalit Bhanot. A decision is likely to be taken at the IAAF Council meeting in Doha, Qatar, on April 9 and 10, Mr. Bhanot said on Wednesday.

Started in Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1977, the World Cup was initially planned as a meet to keep the interest alive for the athletes in between Olympics. It had a biennial cycle to begin with, but later, with the advent of the World championships, it became a quadrennial affair.

After Dusseldorf, the World Cup had been held in Montreal (1979), Rome (1981), Canberra (1985), Barcelona (1989), Havana (1992), London (1994), Johannesburg (1998) and Madrid (2002).

Continental teams, Europe, Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, compete in the World Cup along with the host nation and three other select teams chosen on a qualification basis in either section.

With New Delhi gearing up to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the Nehru Stadium will need a major renovation but the process is yet to take off. It is felt that the stadium, with proper renovation and a few additional facilities, will be adequate to host the World Cup.

For the second year running, the AFI has opted out as host to an Asian Grand Prix meet. Sri Lanka has also gone out of the circuit. The circuit, in its fourth year, will have three stops, Surabaya, Indonesia (June 18), Singapore (June 21) and Songkhla, Thailand (June 24.)

The second Asian All-Stars meet is scheduled to be held in Brunei Darussalam on May 8. With the IAAF Grand Prix getting off for the season at Osaka, Japan, on May 7, there is likely to be a rethinking about the scheduling of the all-stars meet. The Asian athletics championships will be held at Incheon, South Korea, from September 1 to 4.

The rest of the Asian calendar: Eighth Asian cross-country championships, Guiyang, China, March 12; Solidarity Islamic Games, Riyadh, April 12-16; East Asian Games, Macao, China, November 1 to 4; Asian Indoor Games, Bangkok, Nov 12-15; South East Asian Games, Manila, November 27-30; West Asian Games, Doha, December 1-10.

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