The New Delhi 2025 World Para Athletics Grand Prix, which concluded on Thursday, will be an annual event until 2028 after Paralympic Committee of India and the governing body of the sport signed a contract.
It was the first Para Athletics Grand Prix hosted by India.
“They (India) have signed a multi-year agreement with us for the Paralympic cycle (till 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics). So we’ve got a new Delhi Grand Prix for four years,” World Para Athletics Competitions senior manager Martin Chorley told PTI in an interview.
“It (the 2026 edition of the Grand Prix) will be there when we make announcements for the 2026 calendar at the end of this year,” he added.
The same venue, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, will also host the World Para Athletics Championships from September 26 to October 5, as part of the series of high-profile events the country will be staging or hoping to stage in its bid to host the Summer Olympics and the Paralympics in 2036.
“They (India) have been really ambitious with us to sign this multi-year agreement because they want that legacy. They don’t just want to host the World Championships,” Chorley said.
“They’ve got multiple events that they want to sign and our Grand Prix continues in this Paralympic cycle to help that performance pathway for the Paralympic Games for LA 2028, but also their ambitions moving forward in terms of being a host for the Paralympic and Olympic Games in 2036,” he added.
He praised Indian organizers for their fantastic job at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix.
“The contracts for this Grand Prix were only awarded in December last year and they only started working in January. So for two months to deliver to our level, because we have technical requirements that they have to deliver, to deliver to that standard in such a short space of time is fantastic,” he said.
“This really actually gives me confidence moving forward for the World Championships in September that the LOC are competent and can deliver a really good event. It’s only a Grand Prix, so it’s a smaller event. It’s actually giving that learning. We’re now going to upscale from just under 300 athletes where we’ve got this Grand Prix to potentially 1,200, 1500 athletes,” Chorley added.
The tracks at the iconic stadium, host to FIFA U-17 World Cup, will be relaid after Khelo India Para Games from March 20 to 27.