Inas World Indoor Athletics Championships awarded to Italy in 2016

The 2016 Inas World Indoor Athletics Championships have been awarded to Italy ©Inas

The 2016 International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability (Inas) World Indoor Athletics Championships will take place in Ancona, Italy, it has been announced.

The event, set to take place from March 11 to 13, will be held in the Ancona Palaindoor, one of the premier indoor athletics facilities in the country.

It will be supported by the Italian Paralympic Committee, as well as neighbouring regions and is expected that the competition will attract around 100 athletes.

“After the success of hosting the 2005 European Championships, Ancona is ready to organise another important event such as the 2016 Inas World Athletic Indoor Championships,” Italian Federation of Sports for Intellectual and Relational Disabled (FISDIR) Governing Board member Nelio Piermattei said.

“The event will be a great opportunity to support the development of sports for intellectually disabled and the spread of the Paralympic culture of integration and socialisation.

“Our thanks goes to the Inas Governing Board for giving us this opportunity, I’m sure that Italy is ready to face this important challenge.”

Portugal could be the nation to beat at the competition following an impressive showing at last year’s European Indoor Athletics Championships in the Russian city of St Petersburg, where they secured a fruitful haul of 25 medals, including eight golds.

Poland, who topped the 2014 World Championship medal table, will also go into the event full of confidence and both nations will be challenged by France and Russia.

“Italy have been great supporters of the INAS sports programme for many years now and with proven success at delivering events, we are excited to be able to award the event to FISDIR,” Inas executive director Nick Parr said.

“The 2014 World Championships saw 12 different nations winning medals, with the 2016 event looking set to be just as competitive.”