Asia's Athletic Championship has been moved to the northern Indian city of Pune, after Tamil Nadu's capital Chennai refused to host the event earlier this year.
"We did not consider Chennai as a venue once the government refused to host the event. Sports is one thing and public sentiments another. We should understand that it would not be possible to organize the meet there," said Athletics Federation of India president Adille Sumariwala to the Associated Press.
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalitha said in February that Chennai would not play host to an event because of the participation of Sri Lankan athletes.
Jayalalitha had initially requested a ban of Sri Lankan athletes from the competition, however this was ignored by New Delhi, leading to the Chief Minister to block the event from happening in the state.