Video for Asian Athletics Championship highlights Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The State Sports and Youth Service Department today released a video for promotion of the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship scheduled to be inaugurated at the Kalinga stadium here on July 5.

The video showcases glimpses of Odisha culture and tourism.

The Athletic Championship will be the biggest ever sporting event at the state capital. As many as 800 athletes and 400 officials from 45 countries will take part in 42 disciplines in the championships to be held from July 6-9.

"We will promote various tourism spots in Odisha, including eco-tourism, during the championships. The Tourism Department has made an allocation of Rs 4 crore for this endeavour," Tourism Minister Ashok Chandra Panda said.

The multi-purpose Kalinga Stadium is being transformed to become a world-class track and field facility, meeting all the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) standards.

Along with a newly-laid all-weather synthetic track equipped with floodlights, a state-of-the-art warm-up area has also been constructed to make it a world-class training facility in the span of a little over two months.

Earlier editions of the championships have been held in New Delhi (1989) and Pune (2013), making Bhubaneswar the third Indian city to host the flagship athletics event in Asia.