PSB schedules 14th South Asian Games meetings

Federations to submit equipment, coaching and contingent plans

KARACHI:

Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) will hold a series of discipline-wise coordination meetings from November 16 to 20 to finalise preparations for the upcoming 14th South Asian Games.

The Games are scheduled to be held from April 3 to 11 in Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar.

According to an official notification, the meetings, to be chaired by the Director of Games and Events, will take place daily from 1pm at the Games Secretariat in Islamabad.

The notice, issued on November 13 by Manager Coordination Faisal Mehmood to stakeholders, cancels a previous directive issued on November 12.

Sports federations are scheduled to attend the meetings on a priority basis over five days, beginning with archery, athletics, boxing, rowing and tennis on Monday, November 16.

Subsequent sessions will cover football, kabaddi, squash, triathlon and basketball on Tuesday, followed by snooker, hockey, judo, taekwondo, golf and shooting on Wednesday.

The schedule concludes on Thursday and Friday with sessions for badminton, karate, table tennis, weightlifting, wushu, volleyball, cricket, fencing, handball, rugby, swimming and wrestling.

The PSB has made it mandatory for the president and secretary general of each concerned federation to attend, noting that the secretary general's presence is compulsory if the president is unavailable.

Federations are required to provide complete lists of sports equipment, including estimated costs, manufacturing origins and relevant international certifications. They must also submit requirements for foreign coaches and proposed salaries, country-wise estimates of athletes and officials and detailed plans for national training camps and pre-Games international exposure competitions.

The notification was addressed to PSB Director General Yawar Hussain and Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination Secretary Mohyuddin Ahmad Wani to ensure the participation of all relevant sports bodies.

In August, a meeting of the South Asian Olympic Council (SAOC) was held in Islamabad, where the dates of the Games were announced.

Representatives of the National Olympic Committees of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka visited Pakistan's capital to finalise various arrangements for the Games.

Pakistan previously hosted the Games in 1989 and 2004, both at the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad.

"The dates are the same, as we will start on April 3," a senior official of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) told The Express Tribune.

"We will also arrange another meeting with the SAOC so that they can be kept updated about the arrangements," the official said.

Competitions will be held in 28 sports disciplines, with around 6,000 athletes and officials expected to participate.

As the Pakistan Super League (PSL) will also be taking place around the same time, arrangements will need to be made to manage the overlapping events.

"We will also see how we can manage our event during the PSL," the official said.

The Pakistan government is committed to hosting the event in the best possible manner.

Pakistan was awarded the hosting rights seven years ago during the South Asian Games in Nepal. However, the country could not organise the event as scheduled due to various issues.

Now, with those issues apparently settled, the country is preparing to host the competition after a gap of 22 years.

Most of the country's leading athletes are eagerly looking forward to the Games, hoping to perform in front of their home crowd.

The big question now is how the sports governing bodies will prepare their athletes for the competition.

Normally, a host nation seeks to ensure quality preparation for its athletes to maximise its gold medal tally.

This correspondent has learnt through insiders that technical handbooks have also been prepared by the federations in coordination with the POA. These details will also be shared with the respective Asian federations.

One major challenge is that the Games will clash with the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, scheduled to be held in Riyadh from March 28 to April 8.

It remains to be seen how Pakistan's sports governing bodies will overcome this issue, as all the participating nations in the South Asian Games will also be competing in the continental event. The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games were previously scheduled for December 11-21 but were recently postponed.