Youth games will help explore talent: DG PSB

ISLAMABAD: Officials of national sports federations have shown full support to the government’s decision to hold the second edition of the Quaid-i-Azam Inter-Provincial Youth Games in an effort to bring talent to the fore in all Olympic sports at an early age.

The five-day youth games begin at Islamabad’s Pakistan Sports Complex on December 25.Pakistan Sports Board’s Director General Dr Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera chaired a meeting on Monday regarding final preparations for the games. The meeting was attended by secretaries and officials of national sports federations.

“I am pleased to share with the media that all officials of the federations who were here for the meeting have shown their full support for the Games,” Ganjera said. “They believe it’s an ideal opportunity to spot talent at the right age.”

“There is no proper system to hunt talent in various sports disciplines. What we want is to spot and pick talent from these youth games and groom them for future international events including Asian, South Asian and Commonwealth Games,” he added.

The DG also urged the federations to depute qualified technical officials to officiate competitions. “These games will not only provide opportunities to the players and athletes, it will also provide an opportunity for technical officials to polish their skills for future international events. Unless and until we have qualified coaches and technical officials, grooming budding players will not be easy.

“It (the games) will also be an ideal opportunity to promote inter provincial harmony through sports.”Ganjera thanked the federations for showing full support and cooperation for a successful conduct of the games.

On the request of the relevant federations, weight category of +105kg was included in the weightlifting competition, strength of karate (female) was increased from 10 to 12 and in snooker, 6-Red event (duration 2 days), singles event (duration 2 days) and team event (duration 1 day) were approved.As many as 451 technical officials will conduct the games.