New Delhi, May 6: Every year World Athletics Day is observed on May 7 with an aim to popularize athletics among the youths as a way to stay healthy and fit. One of the main highlight of the event is to make people aware of the various issues concerning health and promote physical fitness.

Several athletics competitions including track and field, road running, race walking and cross country running, etc are held in various countries to attract the global attention.

World Athletics Day was introduced by International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) in 1996. Since then it has gone from strength to strength in promoting athletics among the youngsters. World Athletics Day is one of the key social responsibility project of the IAAF titled ‘Athletics for a Better World’.

Initially the IAAF only encouraged the participation of children who were members of clubs affiliated to the apex athletic body. But later understanding the need to broaden the scope of the project; the participation of school children in team competitions were included. The IAAF has been very instrumental in making the World Athletics Day popular in the schools. The promotion of athletics in schools remain close to the IAAF initiative as it is the ideal places to promote the virtues of physical activity in general and of athletics in particular.

The Main Scope of World Athletic Day is Listed Below

· Increase public awareness about sports and to educate youngsters about the importance of sports.

· Promote Athletics as the primary sport in schools and institutions.

· Popularize sports among the youth.

· Establish a link between the youth, sport, and environmental conservation.

· To gradually establish athletics as the number one participation sport in schools all over the world

The IAAF initiative to celebrate World Athletics Day is becoming very popular as more than a hundred countries take part in this event now. The IAAF has been promoting the cause of including the athletics as a central role in schools' sport programmes and new competition structures.

(This article has been sourced from Prasar Bharati News Services as part of Coronavirus coverage)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 06, 2020 07:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).