Athletics calendar 2024: All eyes on Paris Olympics - full schedule
The world and Asian Indoor Championships and the Diamond League meets will be the other big events in 2024. Check the full athletics calendar.
Athletics
Indian athletics scaled some lofty heights in 2023, with Neeraj Chopra becoming the first-ever senior world champion in any track and field event and the country’s athletes highlighting a record medal haul at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China.
Neeraj and Co. will look to keep the momentum going in 2024, a year which will also see the Paris Olympics being hosted.
The Paris 2024 Olympics, scheduled from July 26 to August 11, will undoubtedly be the Blue Riband event of the year. The athletics events at next year’s Summer Games are scheduled from August 1 to 11.
The first big event of the year for Indian athletes will be the 2024 Asian Marathon Championships in Hong Kong China on January 21. The Asian and World Indoor Athletics Championships follow in February and March, respectively.
India, meanwhile, will host two major international athletics meets in 2024. The SAFF Junior Athletics Championships will be held in Chennai from April 12 to 14. The senior SAFF championships will be conducted in Ranchi from October 4 to 6.
The events in the first half of the year will also be crucial for the Indian athletes looking to earn a quota for the Paris Olympics.
The Paris 2024 qualification and ranking period for all individual events - other than the marathon events - is already in effect and will run till June 30, 2024. The qualification period for the marathon is till April 30, 2024.
Hence, athletes will be looking to breach the qualifying standards for Paris 2024 or improve their rankings in their respective events in order to earn their tickets to the upcoming Summer Games.
Also in focus will be the 2024 Diamond League season, which kicks off with the Xiamen leg in China on April 20 and culminates with the two-day Diamond League Finals in Brussels, Belgium, on September 13 and 14.
After Chopra became the first Indian athlete in history to qualify for the Diamond League Finals in 2022, last season saw Indian long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and steeplechaser Avinash Sable make the cut. Sreeshankar and Sable, however, didn’t participate in the Finals in Eugene in order to focus on the Asian Games.
After a great showing in 2023, Indian relay teams will also be in focus at the World Athletics Relay in the Bahamas, scheduled for May.
Besides these, Indian athletes are also expected to take part in various World Athletics Continental Tour meets and domestic competitions hosted by the Athletics Federation of India throughout the year.