ISLAMABAD: The Ath­letics Federation of Pak­istan (AFP) on Saturday decided to postpone the 54th National Athletics Championships citing concerns extreme weather and unusually high daytime temperatures predicted during the scheduled period of the event.

According to a press release issued by the AFP, the National Athletics Championships will now be staged in Karachi during October-November this year.

“Pakistan Navy, the AFP press release added, had requested postponement of the championship citing an impromptu extreme weather anomaly forecast for mid-day temperatures. Similar concerns were also raised by another departmental member of the AFP,” the press release added.

“[The] weather conditions had already been taken into consideration during the planning phase and it was initially decided to hold the championship on a day-night format with [the] first events scheduled to start at 6:00pm.”

The duration of the championship, the federation added, had also been extended from three days, as adopted for last year’s National Athletics Championships staged in Islamabad, to four days in order to minimise the impact of weather conditions on athletes.

“[The] member units, provincial associations and departmental teams had supported holding the championship on the planned dates, believing that starting events close to sunset will significantly reduce weather-related effects,” the press release said. “However, after detailed deliberations and suggestions received from two departmental member units, the organising committee chairman decided to leave the final decision regarding conduct of the championship to AFP president Brig Wajahat Hussain.”

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026