Pakistan name 380-member contingent

ISLAMABAD: A huge 380-member Pakistan contingent will compete in the 18th Asian Games set to be held in Jakarta-Palembang (Indonesia) from August 18-September 2.

The decision was taken at a joint meeting between Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) officials here Wednesday.

Mohammad Khalid Mehmood, secretary POA, told ‘The News’ that the final strength of the contingent would be 380 for the Asian Games.

“A 380-member Pakistan contingent would compete in the 18th edition of the Games. Never before such huge number of athletes holding green flag participated in the Games,” Khalid Mehmood said.

The PSB has agreed to sponsor and support 290 members from the 380-member contingent while the rest of 90 members would be looked after by their respective federations.

“The PSB has yet to recognise football federation therefore Pakistan football team members along with seven other sports contingents will be looked after by their own respective federation. These also include some of those federations not affiliated either with PSB or POA,” POA secretary said.

As many as 250 male athletes and 50 female athletes will be part of the Asian Games contingent with rest of 80 would either be team or contingent officials.

“When we look into the formation of the contingent 300 male and female players will be accompanied by 80 officials. These will include team and contingent officials.”

Pakistan will compete in 36 disciplines of the Games. Those federations that have yet to get affiliation with the PSB or for any other reasons are not being recognised by the government are not only organising camps on their own but they would support players selected to compete in the Games.

The PSB has recently decided to organise the second phase of national training camps from June 20 in different cities or where the camps are already under way.