World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said on Saturday that the decision to host the next two world indoor championships in Asia was a “strategic” one, with both venues subject to a difficult assessment.
The city of Bhubaneswar in the eastern Indian state of Odisha will host the world indoors in 2028, while the Kazakh capital Astana was chosen for the 2030 edition.
Coe, speaking to reporters at the developing world indoors in Torun, Poland, justified the decision to move the three-day international competition to Asia as an opportunity to “get more of a foothold” in key markets.
“First of all, Asia is a very big continent and if you really want to define it, we are talking from Qatar to the Philippines,” he said.
“So it’s not a one-size-fits-all thing. It’s not like it’s like Europe, where in three hours, you’re almost out of Europe in many ways.”
Coe added: “Why those two? First of all, they threw their hats in the ring. Second, they went through a very tough assessment.”
