AFI suspends 15 state units, approves 2010 calendar

Athletics Federation of India today suspended as many as 15 of its units for not holding state meets and not following the AFI calendar.

On the final day of its two-day Annual General Meeting here, the AFI also approved its 2010 calendar, which includes international meets before the Commonwealth Games in October.

Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Delhi, Assam and Kerala were suspended for two months for holding their state championships outside the period provided in the calendar.

Jammu and Kashmir was suspended for not holding required state meets and for not sending athletes in the National Inter-District Meet.

Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and Andaman and Nicobar were suspended for lack of athletic activities in the calendar year. All these states will remain suspended till revoked by the AGM.

Meanwhile, India will host four international meets -- three Asian Grand Prixes and an Asian All Star Meet – before the Commonwealth Games to be held from October 3-14.

The first Asian GP will be held in Pune on June 1 while Bangalore and Chennai will host the second and third on June 5 and 9 respectively. The Asian All Star Meet, which will serve as the athletics test event of the CWG, will be held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on July 29 and 30.

National Senior Federation Cup, National Open Athletics Championships and National Inter-State Senior Athletics Meet, AFI’s three flagship senior national events, will be held in Ranchi (May 1-4), Cochin (May 15-18) and Hyderabad (September 10-13) respectively.

National Youth Athletics Championships, which will be held in Coimbatore from April 23 to 25, will serve as the selection trial for the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore in August.

National Junior Federation Cup, to be held in Vizag (May 27-29), will serve as selection trial for the Asian Junior Championship (July 1-14) in Vietnam and World Junior Championships (July 19-25) in Canada.

In order to generate revenue from marathons and road races, which have been fast becoming multi-crore business, the AFI also decided to form a five-member Marathon and Road Race Committee to look into the matter.

The Committee will be chaired by AFI Working President Adille Sumariwala and will have Kirpal Singh, Ravinder Chowdhury, Madhu Kant Pathak and Sushil Salwan as members.

The AGM also decided to ensure that maximum participation is achieved at the National Inter-District Meet, proposed to be held in Haridwar from October 27-30.

AFI Secretary Lalit Bhanot said the federation would look participation for at least 350 districts in Haridwar.

The AGM also decided to hold its meeting in December from the next calendar year after the end of competition period in November, instead of February.