Jakarta likely to host Junior Asian Games?

Jakarta, Indonesia is the most likely destination to host the 2017 Asian Youth Championship after Sri Lanka had lost the opportunity of hosting the Games citing political interference .

The Olympic Council Of Asia will most probably decide the venue for the event and it is very likely that Jakarta should get the 'nod' to host the multi sport event as a precursor for the 2018 Asian Games which is scheduled to be held in Indonesia.

Hosting the Asian Youth Games was in serious doubt when media reports last year suggested that the Olympic Council Of Asia run by Sheik Ahamad de Fahad not satisfied with the progress being made by Sri Lanka to host such an event.

Minister of Sports Navin Dissanayake vehemently denied the allegations which he firmly believed that was not political. The main reason for the withdrawal was due to lack of preparation to stage such a mega event. There were speculations of withdrawing the event much before the new government resumed office.

The Sri Lanka a couple years ago made a vain attempt to stage the 2018 Commonwealth Games . But failed miserably when a committee led by former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabral left to the Caribbean for the bid, but the outcome was a disaster finally squandering a colossal sum of Rs.800 million.

Sri Lanka then eyed the Asian Youth Games and were in a doubt fearing whether they could successfully complete the mission with their limited resources with over 5000 participants from 45 countries taking part.

The National Olympic Committee has not officially received any document on their stand of the situation, although the writing was on the wall for some time. as the preparations were well behind schedule.

It has been estimated that the cost for the event would be a gigantic one amounting to Rs. 40 billion.