National Games venues not yet prepared

KARACHI: Despite having failed to prepare the venues as yet, the 33rd National Games organisers on Monday assured the stakeholders during a meeting in Quetta that the venues would be prepared in time and the biennial competitions would be held in Balochistan capital in October.

A member of the venues committee told ‘The News’ from Quetta that if the organisers worked hard the venues could be prepared and the Games would be held in the stipulated time-frame which is October 7-14.

However, he was quick to add that practically nothing had been done as yet for preparing the venues.“We have told the organisers that it would be important to make the venues ready well in advance as squads will reach Quetta well ahead of the Games. And every effort should be made to make the venues ready by then,” he said.

Meanwhile, because of lack of facilities in Quetta it was decided that handball, rowing, swimming and squash competitions would be held in Islamabad and the shooting contests would be conducted in Jhelum.

The meeting held at the Usmania Hotel in Quetta was attended by the secretaries of national federations, officials of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), its sports commission, representatives of Balochistan Sports Board, Balochistan Olympic Association and Quetta’s military.

Insiders said that Balochistan government informed the stakeholders that the funds for the spectacle had been approved and would be released soon after Eid-ul-Adha.It was also decided that the torch of the Games would be passed through all provinces before being brought to Quetta on the opening day of the Games in which thousands of athletes from across the country would be showcasing their worth.

“The torch will be first brought from Quetta to Karachi and then it will be taken to Peshawar and Lahore before being brought back to the Balochistan capital,” an insider said. “But it is not yet decided when this journey will begin,” he said.

The sources said that because of the venues issue, a meeting of the venues committee would be held after some days in Quetta. “We will have to come here again for inspecting the venues before making any final decision. We have shifted competitions of some disciplines from here as it was not possible in the stipulated time-frame to provide infrastructure for their competitions,” a member of the venues committee said.