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)