‘Athletes to join SAG camps right after National Games’

KARACHI: The official camps for the 13th South Asian Games will begin immediately after the 33rd National Games.

It was decided in a high-level meeting held at the Olympic House in Lahore on Wednesday. Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) chief Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hasan chaired the meeting which was also attended by Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Director General Arif Ibrahim.

According to an insider, Ibrahim told the POA that players should not be allowed to go homes after the 33rd National Stadium slated to be held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from October 26 to November 1. “The players should go direct to the camps after National Games,” he told POA.

The source said that discussion was also held on the strength of Pakistan’s contingent. The 13th South Asian Games are slated to be held in Nepal’s cities of Kathmandu and Pokhara from December 1-10.

The source said that hardly the camps would run only for 25 days. This is a rare occasion in the history of South Asian Games that Pakistan will be holding such short camps. It will be a huge test for the Pakistani athletes to compete with the well-prepared athletes of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, the POA General Council meeting will be held at Lahore on Thursday (today) which will deliberate on various aspects of the 33rd National Games and 13th South Asian Games. Representatives of the affiliated units have started reaching Lahore to attend the meeting which will be held at the Pearl Continental Hotel.

Meanwhile, the torch of the 33rd National Games reached Lahore on Wednesday. “We want to show to the world that Pakistan is a peace- and sports-loving nation,” POA chief Arif Hasan said after the torch reached Lahore’s Wazir Khan Mosque.

The torch relay was launched here at the Mazar-e-Quaid on Sunday. It was then taken to Quetta. After passing through major cities of Punjab, Muzaffarabad, and Gilgit-Baltistan the torch will be handed over to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Olympic Association at Babusar Pass. And from there it will pass through different cities of KP before entering Qayyum Sports Complex in Peshawar on October 26, the opening day of the biennial spectacle.