Ahmedabad Will Host the 2029 Senior World Weightlifting Championships, the First Time India Has Staged the Event, After the IWF Awarded It on 25 October 2026

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has awarded the 2029 Senior World Weightlifting Championships to Ahmedabad, the first time India will stage the sport’s senior world title event. The IWF Executive Board decided it at a meeting in Ningbo, China, and the announcement came on Sunday 25 October 2026.

The board handed out four world championships in the same sitting. PTI’s report, carried by ThePrint, lists them: Ahmedabad for the 2029 seniors, Moscow for the 2030 seniors, Prishtina in Kosovo for the 2028 World Youth Championships and Caracas in Venezuela for the 2028 World Junior Championships. Reports on the decision also name Yerevan in Armenia as host of the 2027 seniors.

What the IWF said

IWF General Secretary Jose Quinones, quoted by the Daily Excelsior and the Daily Pioneer, said, “All the bids we received were excellent.” He added that three of the four host countries, Kosovo, Venezuela and India, will stage an IWF world event for the first time, and he called it a sign that “our Sport is growing worldwide.”

ThePrint’s PTI report says the IWF decided on all four events together so as to firm up its international calendar for the coming years.

India.com and GKToday report that Ahmedabad won against bids from Russia and Venezuela. India.com also reports that Sahdev Yadav, president of the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF), said India faced strong competition for the rights. The PTI report does not name the other bidders, and the IWF’s own release was not available to tuput when this article was written, so the list of rivals rests on those two outlets.

India’s record at the worlds

Indian lifters have won 18 medals at the World Championships, according to the PTI and Open reports: three gold, ten silver and five bronze. Yadav gave the same count, including three world titles, in a statement quoted by The Hans India.

The first medal came in 1989 at Manchester, where Kunjarani Devi took silver in the women’s 44 kg class and Lalita Polley won bronze. Karnam Malleswari won the women’s 54 kg world title in 1994 and again in 1995. Mirabai Chanu won the 48 kg title at Anaheim, California, in November 2017 with a total of 194 kg, and Reuters reported that Thailand’s Thunya Sukcharoen finished one kilogram behind her.

Yadav called hosting the championships “an important milestone for Indian weightlifting,” according to The Hans India. The same report says he expects the event to give Indian lifters the experience of competing before a home crowd.

The two events that came first

Gujarat staged two international weightlifting championships in the twelve months before the award.

The Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships were held at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex in Ahmedabad and ended on 30 August 2025. The Tribune’s ANI report lists 13 senior medals for India, among them a gold for Mirabai Chanu in the women’s 48 kg class. The IWLF’s own release for the final day reports two golds for Tushar Chaudhary, in youth boys’ +94 kg and junior men’s 110 kg, both with a 285 kg total.

The Asian Weightlifting Championships followed in Gandhinagar, Gujarat’s capital, and finished on 17 May 2026. News On AIR and The Tribune both note that it was only the second time India had hosted the Asian championships, after New Delhi in 1982. India won ten medals, one silver and nine bronze, after the Indian team in the previous edition at Jiangshan came home without one.

The 2030 Commonwealth Games connection

Ahmedabad is also the host city of the 2030 Centenary Commonwealth Games, which Commonwealth Sport ratified on 26 November 2025 at its General Assembly in Glasgow. Weightlifting and para powerlifting are among the eight sports Commonwealth Sport confirmed for the programme on that day. Fifteen to seventeen sports are planned in all, and the rest of the line-up was still to be decided at the time. The full story of that bid is in tuput’s article on the 2030 Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad.

India.com reports that the 2029 world championships will also work as a qualifier for the 2030 Games, and quotes Yadav as saying it “will give our weightlifters a good opportunity to win berths for the 2030 CWG.” The qualification system was not in any of the Commonwealth Sport pages tuput checked on 29 October 2026, so for now it stands as the federation president’s statement.

ThePrint adds that Ahmedabad would also be the host city if India wins the 2036 Olympics, for which the country is bidding. tuput’s piece on India’s 2036 bid covers where that stands.

The Indian Olympic Association welcomed the award. Its president, P.T. Usha, called it a proud moment for Indian sport and pointed to Mirabai Chanu as an inspiration for young athletes, The Hans India reports.

What is still to be announced

As of 29 October 2026, none of the reports on the award names a venue in Ahmedabad or gives dates for the 2029 championships.

The 2026 world championships, hosted by Ningbo itself, run from 27 October to 8 November 2026, according to Republic World.