POA committee visits National Games venues in Quetta

KARACHI: The venue committee of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) on Thursday visited Quetta and inspected the facilities where Balochistan is set to conduct the 34th National Games from May 15 to 23.

The committee, headed by senior POA official Mohammad Jehangir, visited different venues and showed its satisfaction over the condition of facilities.

“Major work has been completed on venues and we have told the organisers to also complete the remaining work by March 31. They assured us that everything would be ready by then,” Jehangir told 'The News'.

“Yes, we are satisfied. Balochistan has done a great job by preparing some fine facilities for various games including hockey, athletics, football, volleyball and boxing. They have also made shooting ranges and the 10 metre range has already been made operational. The 30m range will be made operational when they get equipment for it. So it's fine,” Jehangir said.

“A new tartan track has been laid and there are two hockey turfs. They have raised fine facilities at the university which has a few big halls. I think the major work has been completed and I am confident if they focus the rest of the work will also be completed in the stipulated time,” said Jehangir, who is also the chairman of Pakistan Karate Federation (PKF).

“Their Secretary Sports and DG Sports accompanied us. They now need equipment and for that a summary has been moved to the chief minister,” he said.

Jehangir said that there are no rowing and sailing facilities in Quetta and the competitions in these events would be held elsewhere in the country.

“They also don't have swimming facilities as their swimming pool is not of international standard,” Jehangir said.

Army's Major Irfan, Sindh Olympic Association (SOA) secretary Ahmed Ali Rajput and WAPDA's secretary Umair Malik were the other members of the venue committee who accompanied Jehangir.

Balochistan had been allotted National Games in 2012, the year in which Lahore hosted the biennial spectacle. However, due to security and other issues, Balochistan could not go for hosting the 33rd National Games which were then shifted to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which organised them in 2019 in Peshawar, days before the South Asian Games in Nepal.