Indian athletics calendar 2023: Season starts January 7 and why August 7 will be a special day
Javelin competitions will be held in all states on August 7, which is the day Neeraj Chopra won the Olympics gold medal in Tokyo. Get the full athletics schedule!
Athletics
Indian athletes will have a busy 2023 season with 23 major domestic competitions scheduled throughout the year besides international meets like the Asian Games and the World Athletics Championships.
The 2023 Indian athletics calendar kicks off with the National Cross-Country Championships in Assam on January 7. The first taste of action for the track and field athletes will be in March with the second edition of the Open Throws and Jumps Competition.
There are four legs of the Indian Grand Prix scheduled between March and April in 2023. The first two will be held in Thiruvananthapuram while Bengaluru hosts the next two. The fifth leg of the competition will be staged in September after the World Athletics Championships.
The Indian Open 400m will also be held on March 5 in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Federation Cup, which saw Amlan Borgohain break the men’s 200m national record last year, and the Inter-State Senior Championships, two of the premier events for elite Indian athletes, will be held in June and July, respectively.
Continuing from last year, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) will celebrate August 7 as National Javelin Day to commemorate Neeraj Chopra’s historic gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
A javelin throw competition will be held in all states on that day.
Jamshedpur will host the National Open Athletics Championships towards the end of the season in October, followed by zonal events (North, South, East, West) in the same month.
The World Race Walking Team Championships in Muscat (March 4 and 5) would be the first major international meet for Indians. The Asian Championships in Pattaya, Thailand (July 12 to 16) is important as the winners get direct qualification for the World Championships in Budapest (August 19 to 27).
For the juniors, the postponed Asian Junior Athletics Championships will be held in Yecheon, South Korea from June 4 to 7 ahead of the World U20 championships in Lima, Peru from August 20 to 25.
The Indian athletics calendar ends with the junior nationals on November 4 in Chennai.