Himalayan Games to kick off from April 23

Events and Venues :

Archery —Bhetapara Hockey Stadium

Football ——Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium

Athletics— Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium

Weightlifting—— Bhogeswari Phukani Indoor Stadium

Judo — Tarun Ram Phukan indoor Stadium

Table Tennis — Tarun Ram Phukan indoor Stadium.

Kho Kho— LNIPE, Sopur

Squash—RG Baruah Sports complex.

Boxing— bin Chandra Bordoloi Indoor Stadium

Fencing — bin Chandra Bordoloi Indoor Stadium.

By our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI, Feb 10: Although very short time is left but the organizing committee of the Himalayan Games is optimistic that they would be able to deliver the game on time. The proposed game is set to be held in Guwahati from April 23 and it will be jointly conducted by India Government, Assam Government and Indian Olympic Association.

A team of the organizing committee today visited the different sports infrastructures in the city which will be used during the meet. The committee is satisfied with the current standard of those infrastructures.

Addressing a media briefing just after the end of the inspection Prashant Sukul, the CEO of the Games, said, “Guwahati recently hosted SAF games successfully and we knew that infrastructure will not be a problem for the proposed Games. But still we decided to check that infrastructures so that there is no last minute hiccup.”

The first edition of the Himalayan Games will likely be a six-tion tourment. Apart from host India four more tions have already confirmed their participation and these are Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand. Afghanistan also expressed interest to take part in the game and they are likely to be the part of this Game. The total number of participants will be around 1000.

Meanwhile the chairman of the Technical Committee Dhanraj Choudhury today informed the media that Indian team for the Games will be selected with the athletes from those 11 states which either share boundaries with Himalaya or very close to it. “Among the 11 states 8 are from the North East while the remaining three will be Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.”

Athletes from the North East, particularly Assam and Manipur are expected to be in big numbers in the team.

There will be altogether 10 events in the championship and these are Archery, Athletics, Boxing, Fencing, Football, Judo, and Kho kho, Squash, Table Tennis and Weightlifting. The venues for all ten disciplines are also filized along with Games secretariat which will open at the Bhetapara Hockey stadium.

The media briefing was attended by two joint CEO of the Games-Subhash Basumatary and Ajoy Tiwari  along with R Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Sports.