Asian Athletics Championships: Tickets still elusive for fans

Bhubaneswar: At a time when the excitement over 22^nd Athletics Championships here has reached its zenith, unavailability of tickets has led to severe resentment among fans.

Though Odisha Government is going gaga over successful hosting mega event, the fans are dissatisfied as they are not able to get tickets owing to ‘poor management’ on part of organisers.

Fans are making beelines at the counters but are returning empty handed even though several galleries are falling vacant during major events at Kalinga Stadium.

“We had come from nearly 100 kms to watch the athletics perform live but were unhappy to as we failed to get tickets,” said Dilip Swain, a sports enthusiast.

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Sources said, the organisers issued lot of special passes to school and college students apprehending lack of response from spectators ahead of the Asian Athletics Championship that got off to a colourful start on July 5.

Earlier, sports lovers also had to wait for long hours to get a tickets for the inaugural ceremony. But ‘tickets sold out’ board was displayed at the counter within few minutes after 12.30 pm when the counter was opened

However, the organisors claimed that the Asian Athletics Championships has elicited good response in the State.

“All the tickets earmarked have been sold out. We cannot force people who have bought tickets to come to the venue,” said Sports Secretary Vishal Dev.