India will stage the senior World Weightlifting Championships for the first time in 2029, and Ahmedabad will host them. The International Weightlifting Federation’s Executive Board picked the city at a meeting in Ningbo, China, on Sunday, October 25, ahead of rival bids from Russia and Venezuela, IANS reported. Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi, who also holds the sports portfolio, announced the award on X.
The same board meeting handed the 2030 senior championships to Moscow, the 2028 World Youth Championships to Prishtina in Kosovo and the 2028 World Junior Championships to Caracas. IWF general secretary José Quiñones said India, Kosovo and Venezuela would be hosting IWF world events for the first time, according to South Matters.
Third international lifting meet in Gujarat in five years
The 2029 Worlds will be the biggest of three senior weightlifting events Gujarat has lined up. Ahmedabad held the 2025 Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships. The 2026 Asian Weightlifting Championships followed in May, at the Mahatma Mandir convention centre in Gandhinagar according to IANS, with lifters and officials from close to 30 countries. Sanghavi pointed to both events in his post announcing the award.
Each step up the ladder brings a larger field. A Commonwealth meet draws the former British colonies; an Asian championship adds China, the Koreas, Japan and Central Asia; a World Championship opens the door to every member federation, including the European and American lifting nations. The 2026 Worlds starting in Ningbo this week are the first qualifying event for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, which shows the weight IWF attaches to the senior championships.
A dress rehearsal for the 2030 Commonwealth Games
Ahmedabad will host the 2030 Commonwealth Games, and the 2029 Worlds will double as a qualifying event for that competition, Bombay Samachar and South Matters both reported. Lifters from Commonwealth nations will therefore compete in the city a year before the Games, and organisers get a full-scale test of venue operations, anti-doping, accreditation and athlete transport for one sport before the multi-sport event arrives.
The Centre has already committed Rs 2,000 crore towards the Games, as our earlier report set out, and the state has used a string of smaller international meets to build up hosting experience. Both reports note that Ahmedabad is also the city India has in mind if it pursues the 2036 Olympics.
Venue and dates still to be announced
None of the reports names a venue or competition dates for 2029, and the federation has not published a budget. Those details will decide how much the event touches daily life in Ahmedabad: hotel demand during the competition window, traffic around the arena, and whether the city builds a new hall or reuses an existing one.
Indian Weightlifting Federation president Sahdev Yadav called the award a major development for the sport in India, per IANS. For Indian lifters such as Olympic medallist Mirabai Chanu, a home World Championship removes the travel and acclimatisation burden from one of the season’s most important competitions.
Sources: IANS via Punjab Kesari English, Bombay Samachar, South Matters
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.