KARACHI, May 14: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) will play host to the 40th National athletics championship in December, but its venue will be decided later, according to the annual calendar of events chalked out by the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP).

This means that two national championships will take place in a span of just nine months. The 39th National athletics championship was staged in Lahore in March under the aegis of Punjab Amateur Athletics Association where prime minister Shaukat Aziz announced raise in AFP’s annual grant from Rs0.5 million to Rs2.5m.

The HEC would also conduct the National Women’s Road Race in Islamabad in October.

Pakistan Navy will organize the National Relay Races Championship in July while the AFP Development and Promotion Commission have been entrusted with the task for staging the National Junior (Under-18) championship in November.

Sindh had already been allotted the Inter-provincial (Under-20) championship after NWFP’s failure to organize it in April.

As far as international commitments are concerned, Pakistan will feature in the 4th IAAF World Youth Championship in Morroco from July 13 to 17, 10th IAAF World Athletics Championship at Helsinki, from Aug 6 to 14, 16th Asian Athletics Championship at Incheon City, Korea from Sept 1 to 4 and the 4th Muslim Women’s Games in Tehran, Iran from Sept 22 to 28.