Pole vault phenomenon Mondo Duplantis could well star on Indian soil when Bhubaneswar hosts 2028 World Indoor Athletics Championships

Duplantis is not the only big name who competes indoors. Britain’s Kelly Hodgkinson, the 800 metre Olympic champion, is aiming to win her first World Indoor Championship medal in Torun.

In India, indoor competitions are in their infancy.

The Kalinga Indoor Stadium in Bhubaneswar, completed in March 2024, is the first-ever indoor facility in India. The 1st Indoor National Championships will be held there next week. Though India were sixth on the overall medal tally at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships which began in 2004, the country’s athletes haven’t embraced competing under a closed roof. The track length, 200 metres instead of 400 metres, with banked bends angled at 10 degrees, a 60m sprint instead of 100 metres, no wind factor present conditions unique to indoor competitions.

Anju Bobby George, the 2003 World Championship bronze medallist in the long jump, participated in the Indoor World Championships in Birmingham in 2003 and Moscow three years later. Though she is a two-time silver medallist at the Asian Indoor, in 2006 and 2008, success eluded her at the World Indoors. The indoor season, running from January to March, didn’t suit her schedule either.

“During our time, we never had an indoor stadium in our country so I never thought of doing indoor competitions regularly. For me, the ideal time to start the season was the Doha Diamond League (in May). I used to stop my season by the end of October and then take time off in November and December. So indoors didn’t suit me because you have to start in January and February. The outdoor season starts in April-May. Russian athletes used to start their season at the indoor championships,” Anju, now a senior vice-president of the Athletics Federation of India, told The Indian Express.

The Kalinga Indoor Athletics Stadium is the largest indoor athletics stadium in South Asia. (X)

Growing importance

With India hosting the 2028 edition, Anju said the approach to indoor athletics will change in the country.

“The coaches, the athletes and the federation will plan more. Some athletes may be better suited for indoor competition and some may not. So we have to select the team based on their aptitude. Everybody can’t focus on indoor competitions,” she said.
Last week, long jumper Lokesh Sathyanathan became only the fourth Indian athlete to win an NCAA Division-1 title. In the collegiate indoor championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, he rewrote his indoor national record by jumping 8.21 metres.
James Hillier, the Athletics Director of Reliance Foundation, sees benefit in athletes competing in the indoor season before the outdoors begin.

“It keeps an athlete sharper and brings a purpose to training. If you can use the indoors to get some good success that helps you in the outdoors, it’s a no-brainer. Also, I don’t think it is healthy for an athlete to train six-seven months in a year (during the outdoor off-season) and not compete. I like training to be intense in nature and like competitions to see where an athlete is at,” the Englishman said.

“There’s a little bit of a belief here (in India) that if you do indoors, you can’t be ready for outdoors. It’s a flawed logic. You have to just plan well, organise yourself well, and then you can do indoors and outdoors. We’ve had two Indian athletes (Lokesh and triple jumper Selva Prabhu) win medals at the NCAA. They’ve been put in a different environment and they have absolutely flourished.”
Hillier wants to see change, not only in the mindset of Indian athletes towards indoor competitions, but also in the calendar. Next year, he thinks the national championships should be held before the Asian Indoor Championships. “The National Championships can be like a selection trials.”