World Athletics boss Sebastian Coe expects 2030 CWG to unlock India's untapped potential

New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) India is a market with "untapped potential", according to World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, who foresees the 2030 Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad playing a vital role in promotion of track and field events in the country.

Coe made these observations while confirming that mixed 4x400m relay and the mile race, which were added to the programme for the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, will continue at the 2030 Games as well.

The mile race was last run in the 1966 edition and will replace the 1500m competition in the 2026 Glasgow CWG. Coe said the Commonwealth Games are very important from the perspective of athletics as the competition is very tough.

"Winning a Commonwealth Games medal in track and field is statistically very hard. If you want to win an endurance title, you have to take on the best, including, of course, Kenya. If you want to win a sprints title, you've got Jamaica and the UK and Canada sitting there in the wings," Coe said during a virtual media interaction on Wednesday.

"So look, this is a tough championship. The track is always of a very high order." Coe, a middle-distance gold medallist at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, said the 2030 Commonwealth Games will be very important for the promotion of track and field events in India.

"India is an important market for us. It has a lot of untapped potential. Track and field is becoming more popular in India, partly driven by some of the outstanding performances of Neeraj Chopra.

"And look, the opportunity to stage our events for commercial and for participatory reasons in a growing market, in a growing sports marketing market, is really important. And that's got to be a good thing. And we've had lengthy discussions with the Indian federation and even some commercial partners about extending that footprint.

"The Commonwealth Games, of course, in 2030 will be a very important moment, particularly in the promotion of track. Athletics is one of the new core sports for the Commonwealth Games," said Coe, adding that World Athletics would want more events to take place in India.

India has bid for the 2028 World U20 Athletics Championships, and made strategic bidding of both the 2029 and 2031 Senior World Athletics Championships.

On the mile race (little over 1600m) and 4x400m relay, Coe said the two events are being viewed as permanent fixtures in the Commonwealth Games programme.

"The reason for the mile (race's inclusion) is I think it's a nod, a good nod, to history and tradition, but also innovation at the same time," Coe replied to a PTI query.

"If you think about the Miracle Mile, that is something still talked about in our sport. So yeah, I think this is a good addition," said the 69-year-old Briton during a year-end interaction.

The men's mile run in the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games was remembered as the 'Miracle Mile' after gold winner Roger Bannister of England and silver medallist John Landy of Australia both ran under 4 minutes.

'Depth of talent really sumptuous' ====================== Coe waxed eloquent on the depth of talent in athletics currently.

"It's a depth of talent we probably haven't seen in a few generations. I'm not talking about one or two big names.

"In every one of our disciplines, track, indoors, outfield and road, we have a depth of talent, young talent coming through, which is really sumptuous." Commercially too, Coe said, 2025 has been an "extraordinary year" for World Athletics.

"In the last four years we've grown our revenues by some 25 per cent. And of course, the very big number was around our outstanding World Athletics Championships in Tokyo where we had 1.4 billion viewer hours. We sold over 600,000 tickets in Tokyo with sellout sessions pretty much every night of the week," he elaborated. PTI PDS PM PM PM