World Athletics decision to hand Asia two world indoors ‘strategic’ – Coe

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said Saturday that the decision to hold the next two world indoor championships in Asia was “strategic”, with both venues having come through tough evaluations.

The city of Bhubaneswar in Odisha state in eastern India will host the world indoors in 2028, while the Kazakh capital Astana was chosen for the 2030 edition.

Coe, speaking to reporters at the ongoing world indoors in Torun, Poland, justified the decision to move the global three-day competition to Asia as an opportunity to “get more than a toe hold” in important markets.

“First of all, Asia is a very large continent and if you really want to define it, we’re talking from Qatar to the Philippines,” he said.

“So it’s not a one size fits all. It’s not sort of saying it’s like Europe, where in three hours, you’re basically almost out of Europe in most directions.”

Coe added: “Why those two? First of all, they threw their hats in the ring. Secondly, they went through a really tough set of evaluations.”

An independent evaluation panel “makes judgements across competence, about integrity, about commercial opportunities, the strategic imperatives”, added the two-time Olympic 1500m gold medallist for Britain.

Sports marketing landscape

With large populations, Coe continued, comes “a pretty sophisticated sports marketing landscape”.

“We witness that in everything from cricket through to Formula One, now even the Premier League, you know it is where we need to be.

“I’ve been in Bhubaneswar on a few occasions… it is a big sporting hub in India. It has very strong political leadership down there.

“I was there not that long ago for the Asian track and field championships. World Cup hockey tournaments are held there. It’s a sporting hub where they do deliver sports events.”

Turning to Kazakhstan, Coe added: “I was in Astana not that long ago. They have identified athletics as their number one strategic sport.

“In Kazakhstan in the last six or seven years, they’ve built some outstanding indoor athletics facilities and their ability and their appetite to play a bigger role in world athletics is again another interesting market for us.

“Central Asia is hugely important, so for strategic reasons, they’re good bids to have at the table, and I hope in both those cases, they open other opportunities for us to get more than a toe hold in those marketplaces.”

The choice of Odisha comes with Amdavad, the city also known as Ahmedabad — in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat — confirmed as host city for the 2030 Commonwealth Games, which will feature a full track and field programme.

That is widely viewed as a stepping stone to bidding to host the 2036 Olympics, and erasing memories of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi — an event marked by construction delays, substandard infrastructure and accusations of corruption.

When Amdavad was confirmed for the Commonwealths, Coe said at the time that India was “already expressing interest in hosting major global athletics events, and the long-term aspiration to host a World Athletics Championships -– and one day the Olympic Games”.

Coe said it was a “powerful sign of a nation thinking boldly about its sporting future”.