Asian Athletics Championships will be hosted in Bhubaneswar in Orissa on July 5 this year, 2017. This will be the 22nd championship organized every 2 years in different Asian countries by Asian Athletics Association. This will be the first time, the event will be held in the capital city of Odhisa. The championship will be considered as the biggest event in the competition’s history this year because more than 1000 athletes and delegates from 45 countries will participate in 42 sports in the entire championship event. It will be a qualifying event for the IAAF World Championships to be held in London in August 2017. This is the third time the event is being held in India, after New Delhi in 1989 and and Pune in 2013. The opening ceremony will be held at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar and more than 500 artists will be performing. The event will be graced by many eminent personalities and VIPs .
Asian Athletics Championships : Timing Schedule for the opening ceremony
- The cultural program is scheduled to be held between 6 and 8 pm on July 5, 2017.
- The doors of the stadium will be opened for public at 4 pm.
- This will be followed by the entry of the athletes and then the VIPs at 5 pm.
- More than 800 athletes are taking part in the event.
- The actual sports event will be a 4-day event starting from July 6 morning.
Opening Ceremony Highlights
- Athletes of 45 Asian countries will participate in the march past ceremony and oath taking inside the stadium at 6pm.
- A 40-minute cultural program will be the main attraction of the opening ceremony.
- The program is designed to display the ancient glorious past of the state in terms of culture, heritage, it’s Buddhist connection with other countries and the current time of modernism.
- The program will start with sun as protagonist. Voiceovers will speak about the history and present period of Odisha while dancers will enact it on stage.
- A Thousand Hand, a dance troupe from Thailand, will perform in the opening ceremony. They will make their appearance when voiceovers tell about the connection of Buddhism in India with countries like Sri-Lanka and Thailand.
- The dance program has been prepared and guided by noted Odissi exponent Aruna Mohanty and more than 400 dancers will perform in the act.
- Traditional dance forms will also be used in the program.
- Noted singer and composer Shankar Mahadevan with his troupe has also been invited to perform in the opening ceremony. He will sing on the theme of sports and a few Bollywood numbers, including an Odia song.
- Finally, the opening ceremony will witness dazzling fireworks in the sky in the finale.
Indian Team at 22nd Asian Athletics Championships
The Indian Squad representing the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships this year comprises a 95- member team with javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra leading the squad. The squad includes 46 women. The entries of few athletes would be provisional and they would be eligible to be part of the team only when they pass their fitness trials in Bhubaneswar ahead of championships.
Asian Athletics Championships Preparations by Orissa Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC)
- The state tourism department has hired two luxurious Mercedes Benz buses from Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation.
- The buses will be used for movement of delegates during the Championships and would remain in the city from July 1 to 11.
- The buses would also be for sightseeing of players as well.
- For VVIPs, the state tourism has also arranged two Audi cars.
- Moreover, nearly 200 GPS enabled vehicles are lined up by the Tourism department for movement of players and officials.
- On July 4, a day before the opening ceremony of the Asian Athletics Championships, OTDC has planned a sightseeing tour for 130 VIP delegates to Konark and other places like Khandagiri hills and peace pagoda at Dhauli near Bhubaneswar.
- Heritage walks would also be organized for the players and delegates.
- OTDC has also prepared special kit bags with brochures, Odisha tourism booklet and city guide and two books exclusively on Odisha destinations for the delegates and the players.
- So far, 1170 rooms in 16 hotels and 2 private guest houses have been booked for accommodation of players and VIPs and important officials.
- The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s officials are training the hotel staff on hygiene.
- The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has also given a standard menu for food preparation for the players in all the reserved hotels for the event.
