33rd National Games: POA to announce committee to conduct torch relay

KARACHI: Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) will announce a committee for torch relay of the 33rd National Games slated to be held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from October 26 to November 1.

“In few days, POA will announce the committee which will be tasked to conduct torch relay which will begin from Karachi,” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Olympic Association’s president Syed Aqil Shah told ‘The News’ on Wednesday.

This will be the first time in history that torch relay would begin from Karachi and pass through different cities of the country before reaching Qayyum Sports Complex, Peshawar, where the torch will keep burning till the end of the biennial spectacle.

Sindh Olympic Association (SOA) will host the relay opening ceremony. The relay will begin from Mazar-e-Quaid. Shah also expressed satisfaction over the facilities at Mardan and Abbottabad after visiting these cities of the KP which are bracing up for hosting some of the events during the National Games.

The facilities at the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Mardan are very good, Shah conceded. “We will conduct handball there,” Shah said. “Its hall is fairly good and I will also request the Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) to hold its next National Championship in the same hall,” said Shah, also a former KP Sports Minister.

“In Abbottabad, too, the facilities are superb. We will hold gymnastics, weightlifting (men and women), rugby (men and women) and judo competitions. He was also satisfied with the facilities of Abdul Wali Khan Sports Complex, Charsadda, which will host badminton.

Shah said that both the KP Olympic Association and KP government are on the same page, hoping the Games would be conducted in a solid way. He said that Afghanistan had already been extended invitation through foreign office for sending its token contingent to add to the grace of the competitions. He said all issues of associations will be resolved in KP before going for holding National Games.