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In what is seen as a big advantage to the elite athletes attending a national relay camp in Thiruvananthapuram, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has shifted the 25th National Federation Cup senior athletics championships to Kozhikode from Patiala.
The Kozhikode competition, scheduled to be held from April 2 to 6, will also double up as a national selection trial for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in August and the Asian Games in September.
“The annual calendar has been designed to give our athletes every chance to qualify and prepare for international events, including the Eugene World Athletics Championships in July and Asian Games in September,” AFI president Adille Sumariwalla said in a statement on Saturday.
According to the AFI 2022 calendar announced on Saturday, the Indian Grand Prix 1 will be held in Thiruvananthapuram on March 13, while the second leg of IGP will be held at the same venue on March 23. The first and second legs of the IGP will double up as a warmup event for the Kozhikode Federation Cup.
Throws and jumps competition
The AFI has also introduced a separate throws and jumps competition in the 2022 calendar. The inaugural edition of the Indian Open Throws competition will be held on February 26 in Delhi, while the Indian Open Jumps competition will be held on March 1 in Thiruvananthapuram.
The ninth Indian Open Race Walking competition will be held on April 16 and 17 in Ranchi. The competition was earlier scheduled to be held in the first week of February, but was postponed due to the pandemic.
The fourth edition of the Indian Open javelin throw will take place on April 23 and 24 in Jamshedpur.
The third and fourth legs of the IGP will be held in Madurai on May 18 and May 25 respectively.
The 61st National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships will be held in Chennai from June 10 to 14.
To celebrate Neeraj Chopra's victory at the Tokyo Olympic Games last year on August 7, the AFI plans to conduct a javelin competition in all the states on the same date this year.
The fifth and sixth legs of the IGP will be held in Bengaluru on August 10 and August 20 respectively.
The 61st National Open Athletics Championships will be held from October 15 to 19 in Jamshedpur.
The fourth edition of Indian Open 400m will be held in Jamshedpur on October 1 and 2. The second edition of the Indian Open U-23 athletics competition will be held in Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) between October 29 and 31.
The zonal competition will be held across the country in September.
