Making of World Yogasana Championship: How yoga travelled from ashram to arena and the big Olympic dream

Yoga, the ancient Indian practice, is evolving rapidly. From a mental, physical and spiritual exercise, the practice has now turned into a full-fledged sport with the first-ever World Yogasana Championship scheduled to take place in Ahmedabad starting June 4.

One could mistake it for a budding competition trying to make it big. However, it is already quite big. More than 400 athletes are set to participate in the event from around 60 countries.

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READ | Yogasana explained: From ancient yoga practice to competitive sport

With yogasana confirmed to be among the indigenous sports that will be part of the 2030 Commonwealth Games, the organisers believe that the World Championship is the first step to advertise the sport to the world.

‘Yogasana championship, six years in making’

The inaugural World Yogasana Championship takes place in Ahmedabad’s TransStadia from 4-8 June. The five-day event is set to see participants travel to India from all over the world.

Sanjay Malpani, the director of the tournament and vice-president of World Yogasana, is confident that the event will be successful. He reveals that the competition was being planned for a long time, with the rules and regulations being developed as per Olympic standards.

“The planning for this had already begun six years earlier,” Malpani told Firstpost in an exclusive interaction. “For that, we prepared an Olympic standard CoP or Codes of Points, meaning rules and regulations. We have kept upgrading it and improving it since then because it is a new sport.”

The CoP has extensive details about how an asana must be performed to gain points. There are 250 optional asanas and 40-50 regular asanas explained in the rulebook that was prepared to make yogasana a proper sport.

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Malpani tells that there are six age groups, ranging from 10 to 55, across which the events will be held.

“A total of 145 events are going to take place here. For which we have made five FOPs, Field of Play. One of them is the largest, where artistic, rhythmic and group events are going to take place. And four FOPs, which are small, will have individual traditional yogasanas,” he says.

Participation from all corners of the world

A large overseas contingent of athletes will be participating in the inaugural yogasana world championship. Malpani reveals that the biggest group is coming from Asian countries like Japan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Middle East, while European, American and Australian nations are also participating in big numbers. Despite the Ebola danger, African athletes are also travelling.

Malpani explains that there has been a proper qualification pathway for international athletes to take part in the event.

“We had been planning for it for a long time. Every athlete reaching here is coming after taking part in their own national competitions,” the tournament director says.

He also credits Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the famous yoga guru Swami Ramdev for making the practice popular.

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“Seeing this sport in foreign countries, foreigners were excited that such a difficult posture could be done so easily. So, the yoga asana coaches who came from India to other countries were in high demand. Online coaching also started. And on a large scale, the awareness of this sport in foreign countries has definitely increased,” Malpani says.

‘Yoga definitely India’s soft power’

Yoga has been seen as an instrument of India’s soft power abroad and Malpani too agrees.

“Definitely, our soft power is yoga. Yogasana has definitely reached foreign countries. So, our yoga teachers have received a lot of demand all over the world. And our yoga teachers go abroad in large numbers. They are making yogasana popular in their own place and that is definitely helping,” Malpani says.

Reflection on the importance of the World Championship, he says, “The importance of this World Championship is massive. When the World Championship is held here, the world will see how Yogaasana has been brought from the Ashram to the arena. A very big marketing opportunity has been achieved for this game through the World Championship. And on a large scale, in the coming days, the attraction for Yoga Asana will increase.”

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CWG preparations on with eyes on Olympics

While the preparations for the World Championship is curently underway, the work for the Commonwealth Games of 2030 has also already begun.

“We are working on this, so that Yoga Asana Games can be promoted in most of the Commonwealth Countries. And we can also organise a championship for them in the coming days. The preparation for this has started,” the vice-President of Yogasana Bharat Malpani said.

Talking about a potential ticket to the Olympics, especially with India being in contention to host the 2036 Summer Games, Malpani says, “Of course. That is our dream. We will definitely try this.”

He also hopes that yogasana will grow at such a rate that it will become a popular sport in the country, leaving behind cricket. “We believe that with the speed, with the number of athletes who are moving forward with this game, in the coming days, this game will definitely reach beyond cricket.”

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