Bhubaneswar: Top Indian athletes, including sprinter Animesh Kujur and triple jumper Praveen Chithravel, are upbeat at competing in the inaugural National Indoor Championships beginning Tuesday, saying the event will help them in their build-up to the Asian Games later this year.
Kujur, who holds the national record in both 100m and 200m outdoor events, is making his indoor debut as part of a 33-member Odisha team.
He will compete in the 60m race in the two-day championships.
Triple jump national record holder Chitravel will represent Tamil Nadu, but will compete in the long jump.
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High jumper Sarvesh Kushare, who made it to the finals in the 2025 World Championships (outdoor), is also among around 300 athletes taking part in the two-day national event being held at the state-of-the-art indoor facility at the Kalinga Stadium complex.
“This is going to be my first indoor competition, and a 60m race is about how explosive you are,” said Kujur, who is running his first race of the season.
“My main target this year is the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, and I want to know from this indoor race as to what my level is and the improvements I have to make, if any,” said the 22-year-old, who also competed in the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo in the 100m.
Kujur is opening his outdoor season with the Indian Athletics Series 3 in New Delhi April 11.
The National Indoor Championships will be a novel experience for many Indian athletes, the organisers and the officials of the AFI.
An indoor competition is run on a 200m track, instead of 400m in outdoor events, in a closed and smaller facility.
Athletes run on tracks which are narrower and have banked turns. The outdoor 400m tracks are wider and have flat turns.
Field events like high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump and shot put are included. But throw events like javelin, discus and hammer are excluded for obvious reasons.
Indoor events are not affected by wind, and the weather conditions are consistent throughout the duration of the competition.
Around 300 athletes will compete in the national championships, with Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra sending big contingents of around 30 athletes each.
Chitravel, though, has competed in the indoor events earlier, and he is the most experienced one in this aspect.
He won a triple jump silver medal in the 2023 Asian Indoor Championships in Kazakhstan.
“Indoor events are feel-good competitions inside closed doors, and performance is consistent. In outdoor events, there is wind factor which is not present indoors.
“So, I am looking forward to the National Indoors,” said Chithravel, who also took part in the 2024 World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
Kushare, who currently trains at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, is also looking forward to the experience of competing indoors. Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Bahadur Singh Sagoo hoped that the maiden event would give a fillip to the profile of the country in the indoor competitions. “We did well in the Asian Indoor Championships in February in China, and we are now holding our first national championships. We are hoping that we will keep on improving our performance in the indoor events.” He also talked about the National Relay Championships to be held in Chandigarh March 28.
“We are hoping to qualify for the World Relays (May 2-3 in Botswana) from the National Open Relay in Chandigarh. To do that, we need to have at least two foreign teams in Chandigarh. So we are looking to invite 3-4 foreign teams.”
