Singapore bids to host the World Athletics Championships in 2025
More details were finally announced about World Athletics competitions in the next few years. The World Indoor Championships will officially be held in Glasgow, Scotland on March 1-3, 2024. Meanwhile, the World Under-20 Championships will kick off in Lima, Peru from August 20 to 25. However, there is still no announcement on the Championships that is going to be held in 2025.
Still, as early as now, people are already talking about it. Recently, Singapore has announced that they have already submitted a bid to be the host of this prestigious event. Many are interested to see whether Singapore will get to do this.
If SG succeeds, it will be the first time that the championships will be held in Southeast Asia. It will also be quite a surprise because athletics isn’t extremely popular in the country and even in some parts of Asia. When it comes to the biggest sports in this continent, the ones that sit on the top spot are football, cricket, and basketball. Millions would watch the EPL, the NBA, and the IPL teams in Asia. With that, if Singapore gets to host the event, it could boost Asia’s interest in this sport.
What Singapore has to say
2025 is also the year that Singapore will celebrate its 60th year of independence. If they get to host the championships, it will be very timely. This big of an event would simply fit into the celebrations that Singapore will have.
Keith Tan, Chief Executive of the Singapore Tourism Board, spoke about their intentions to host the event. Tan said, “We hope to welcome the world’s best athletes and their fans to Singapore in 2025. We have a proven track record of hosting world-class sports events successfully, and Singapore25 would be a strong addition that boosts our vibrancy and attractiveness as a lifestyle destination."
SportSG’s chief executive officer, Lim Teck Yin, also commented on this and said, “The World Athletics Championships has never been to Southeast Asia. The region is home to 680 million people including 200 million under-35s, countless MNCs (multi-national companies), and over 30 tech unicorns.
“Southeast Asia’s potential for new fans, partnerships, athletes, and heroes to take athletics to the next level is self-evident – and Singapore25 can be that springboard.”
Another person who spoke about this plan is the president of Singapore Athletics, Lien Choon Luen. He said, “Singapore25 will give our athletes and those from the region the opportunity to rub shoulders with the giants of the track and field and fire up more interest for the sport. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to inspire the athletes of tomorrow.”
Singapore is no stranger to hosting such a huge event. In 2010, SG has successfully hosted the inaugural Youth Olympic Games. In 2015, this is also where the Formula 1 Grand Prix was held. According to SportSG, if they get to be allowed to host the World Athletics Championships, they will be teaming up with Ong Beng Seng, a hotel tycoon in SG who took care of the Singapore Grand Prix in 2015.
Lim Teck Yin said, "Singapore will draw on the same innovation and expertise to reimagine the World Athletics Championships and deliver an event that aims to set a new bar for the future.”
Upcoming World Athletics Championships
What we know so far is that the chosen country to host this prestigious event in 2025 will be announced in July. That’s when the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon will take place. This event was supposed to happen last year. However, it was postponed because of the pandemic.
The 2022 edition of the championships will kick off on July 15. The whole event will run until July 24. This will also be the first time that the competition will be in the United States.
The whole tournament will be held at the University of Oregon Hayward Field with a capacity of 30,000. This was also the place where the 2021 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships and 2020 US Track and Field Olympic Trials were held. NBC Sports has the right to media coverage for this event.
Aside from Singapore, Kenya and Japan have also expressed their interest in hosting this event.
The World Athletics Championships is a popular athletics event that is held every year. The very first championship happened in 1983 and it has been an event that only takes place every four years until 1991. Since 1993, it was then held biennially. The last championship took place in Doha, Qatar in 2019.
