South Asian countries get ready for golden Jubilee SA Games
by Leslie FERNANDO
SA GAMES: The Golden Jubilee South Asian Games - the 11th edition
will be from January 29th to February 8th 2010 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Sri
Lanka will compete in 23 disciplines and the Sports Ministry together
with National Olympic Committee is finalising the teams to represent Sri
Lanka.
Already the Sports Ministry and the organising committee have
appointed 23 Ministerial Coordinating Secretaries to look into various
matters in connection with selections, training, coaching programs,
accommodation, nutritions and food during training periods. The
Ministerial Secretaries who have been appointed by the sports Minister
will have to submit progressive reports to the Director General, Sports
Development Department regularly.
The sports that Sri Lanka will compete in: Shooting, Athletics,
Badminton, Basketball, Boxing, Cricket, Cycling, Golf, Football,
Handball, Hockey, Judo, Kabaddi, Karate, Archery, Swimming, Squash,
Table Tennis, Teakwondo, Volleyball, Weight-lifting, Wrestling an Wushu.
The countries competing are: Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, India,
Maldives, Nepal. Pakistan.
Reminiscences from Kathmandu to Dhaka
South Asia's largest sports extravaganza - the South Asian Games
returns to Bangladesh after a lapse of 17 years. It was held there in
1993 - 6th Games. But 25 years ago Bangladesh hosted the 2nd SA Games.
As preparations for the eleventh edition of the South Asian Games get
underway in Dhaka, Bangladesh there's just 68 days more for the start of
the games. The seven Nations games have now been increased to eight with
Afghanistan being the new entrant.
The South Asian version of Olympics began way back in 1984 and the
Inaugural Games was held in Kathmandu, Nepal. It was the regional body
of the South Asian countries that made way for a multi-sport event of
this magnitude. With the seven countries in the region forming the South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) the area of sports
too was discussed at length.
With the idea of promoting sports activities in the region the seven
SAARC countries joined hands to give birth to the South Asian Sports
Federation (SASF). During the IOC Congress in Colombo, 1981, Olympic
representatives from Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Nepal had an
informal discussion to make a feasibility study to build a regional
sports forum. The representatives agreed to form a sports body for South
Asian region SASF in consultation with the other member countries of
SAARC.
On November 26, 1981 NOC representatives of the seven SAARC member
countries met in New Delhi and decided to have a separate sporting event
for South Asia on similar lines with the Asian Games. They decided that
each country would host the Games in alphabetical order once in two
years. They also decided to organise separate sports events and tours
amongst member countries on a regular basis.
Kathmandu Games - 1984
The inaugural Games was planned for 1983 but Bangladesh could not
host it due to unforseen circumstances. Nepal then became the inaugural
hosts of South Asian Games in Kathmandu on September 17, 1984. The Game
were then called the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games until the member
countries decided to change it to South Asian Games only a couple of
years later. The first-ever SAF Games had only five disciplines -
athletics, soccer, swimming, boxing and weightlifting. Of the 62 Gold
medals which were on offer, India underlined their regional supremacy by
accounting for 44 of those while Sri Lanka (7) and Pakistan (5) secured
the second and third places respectively in the final medals standings.
India bagged 44 gold, 28 silver and 16 bronze medals to total 88
medals out of 185 that were on offer. It was the Indian swimmers who
mainly contributed to their country's success, winning a total of 22
golds, Sumanwalal Adil (11.10 seconds) and Sri Lankan Simone Van Heer
(12.30 seconds) emerged the fastest man an woman respectively as they
bagged gold medals in the 100m athletic events.
Khazan Singh - 6 Golds
Host Nepal created history by winning the soccer Gold beating
Bangladesh in the final while Maldives won the bronze. Indian Khazan
Singh was the 'king' of the pool, winning six gold medals in swimming -
men's 100 metres, and 200 metres freestyle, 100m and 200m butterfly,
200m and 400m individual medley. If not for Sri Lanka's Julian Bolling
who bagged gold medals in 400 metres and 1500 metres freestyle, India
would have won two more gold medals. But the mighty Indians won seven of
the eight weightlifting golds that were on offer. India also won five
gold in boxing. The countrywise medal summary: India 44 gold, 28 silver,
18 bronze total - 88 (first), Sri Lanka 7 gold, 11 silver, 19 bronze -
37 (second), Pakistan 5 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze - 10 (third), Nepal 4
gold, 12 silver, 8 bronze - 24 (fourth), Bangladesh 2 gold, 8 silver, 13
bronze - 23 (fifth), Bhutan 2 bronze (sixth), Maldives 1 bronze
(seventh.
(More on other games will be continued next week)
|