12th SAG in February next year

KATHMANDU, July 9: The South Asian Olympic Council has decided to organize the 12th South Asian Games (SAG) in the last week of February next year in Guwahati and Shillong in India.

The meeting of the council held in New Delhi on Wednesday decided to organize the event in the last week of February, according to Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) President Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan.India had proposed to host the 12th edition of the SAG from December 10 this year. Representatives from all South Asian nations took part in the meeting. "Maldives, Pakistan and some other countries said they will not be able to manage financial resources to take part in the event at the end of the year," said Pradhan. "We also support them as we will get more time for preparations."

India had proposed to include only 22 games, excluding karate and cricket. "However, India agreed to include karate as per the demand of some of the countries along with Nepal," Pradhan informed. Nepal is considered strong in karate in South Asian countries.

According to Pradhan Nepal had demanded to include sepak takraw, chess, sambo, fencing and karate. "It is impossible for Nepal to take part in the SAG without karate. We convinced them that karate was like a national game for Nepal. However, the final decision will be made by the technical committee," said Pradhan.

He said some of the countries criticized India for proposing to exclude women's events from seven out of 22 games. "India had proposed excluding women's event from basketball, cycling, football, taekwondo, volleyball weightlifting and wushu. However, Olympic Committees of various countries demanded that at least 23 games included during 11th SAG in Bangladesh be in this edition as well," said Pradhan, adding that 23 to 25 games was likely to be included in the event.

"Nepali women players have high probability to win medals in football, taekwondo, volleyball and wushu," opined Pradhan. "Bangladesh demanded to include cricket and we also supported them.

"However, India insisted that government's approval is needed to include games since the government has allocated budget for the events so it needs time to fix all the matters," Pradhan informed.

The 22 proposed games in men's and women's categories include archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, handball, hockey, judo, kabbadi, kho-kho, shooting, squash, swimming and table tennis, wrestling and triathlon, while basketball, cycling, football, taekwondo, volleyball, weightlifting and wushu for men only.

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