India has been awarded the 2028 World Athletics Indoor Championships, with Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Stadium Complex confirmed as the host venue. The announcement came on March 19 at World Athletics’ Council Meeting in Torun, Poland — the day before this year’s championships kicked off in the same city, which is a nicely poetic touch.
It’s a big deal. India has never hosted a global track and field championship before, and the fact that it beat out New Zealand for hosting rights says a lot about how far the country’s athletics infrastructure has come.
The championships are scheduled for March 3–5, 2028, and will pack 26 events — 13 men’s, 13 women’s — into three days of fast, intense competition.
How Odisha Got Here
Odisha didn’t land this bid on reputation alone. A World Athletics inspection team visited Kalinga Stadium in January 2026 and liked what they saw: a modern indoor facility that has already hosted the Asian Athletics Championships (2017) and World Athletics Continental Tour events. The groundwork was clearly there.
World Athletics Vice President Adille Sumariwalla, who travelled to Poland for the vote, confirmed the win to PTI. His delegation, like all bidding nations, was kept out of the room while the decision was made. “Later, World Athletics announced that India has been awarded the Championships,” said Ravinder Chaudhry, former AFI secretary, speaking from Torun.
AFI President Bahadur Singh Sagoo put it plainly: the hosting rights reflect “the growing stature of Indian athletics in the international stage.” Hard to argue with that.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe framed it in broader terms, pointing to a deliberate push to bring major athletics events into emerging markets. Odisha’s Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi credited more than a decade of investment in sports infrastructure and athlete development for putting the state on the map.
And the 2030 Edition Goes to…
Astana, Kazakhstan, also confirmed at the same meeting. Their championships are set for March 15–17, 2030. Kazakhstan hosted the Asian Indoor Championships in 2023, so they’re not new to this either. The global athletics calendar is filling up fast.
Two strong hosts lined up back to back. For fans of track and field, it’s a good time to be paying attention.
