South Asian Athletics C'ships in Ranchi postponed
Kolkata: The South Asian Senior Athletics Championships that was scheduled to be held in Ranchi from May 3-5 has been postponed.
The event that was supposed to see athletes from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives compete against each other in the three-day event will likely now to be held in the second week of June after the completion of Asian Athletics Championships.
The fourth edition of the tournament was already postponed by
Athletics Federation of India
(AFI) once last year when it was scheduled for October 4-6, 2024, in Ranchi. The new dates are likely to be announced after further discussions in a meeting later this week.
While no reason for postponement has been officially given, sources believe it is because the athletes from Pakistan were yet to get their visa. Early this month Pakistan had sent a list of 43 athletes, including that of Olympic javelin champion
Arshad Nadeem
, for the event.
Meanwhile, the news of postponement was made official in a letter dated April 22 by AFI secretary Sandeep Mehta. He wrote to the member federations of South Asian Athletics Federation stating, "Reference to the Circular dated 4 April, 2025, regarding South Asian (SAAF) Senior Athletics Championships scheduled to be held from 3rd to 5th May 2025 at Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. In this regard, it is informed that the South Asian (SAAF) Senior Athletics Championships 2025 have been postponed and the new dates will be announced soon."
Although the tournament, which was last held in 2008, has been postponed for a second time, one hopes that the tournament will be held this year itself as planned and the people of Ranchi will get to see some of the best athletes of South Asia compete in front of their eyes.
Besides Nadeem, according to Sri Lankan media, Birmingham Commonwealth Games bronze medallist and South Asia's fastest sprinter Yupun Abeykoon was also supposed to take part in the tournament.
On a positive note, the postponement will help the organising committee make better arrangements for the 'D' category meet that carries crucial points for the
2025 World Rankings
. The Birsa Munda Stadium hosted the Indian Open Athletics meet on April 10 and many of the athletes weren't too happy with the arrangement.
Moreover, after a storm hit the city in the evening, the lights of the stadium kept going off multiple times and as a result the men's and women's javelin finals that saw the likes of upcoming star Sachin Yadav take part, was a start and stop affair.
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