Feds to run final phase
National sports federations have finally been involved with Bangladesh Youth Games as the final phase of the first-ever under-17 games is set to get underway in Dhaka from March 9.
The Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) on Thursday sat with the high officials of 21 national federations to discuss the details and handed over all the documents regarding results from the divisional phase, which were held in January after the preliminary phase was held at district headquarters in December.
“We had a fruitful discussion with the federation officials at the meeting. They will play the key role in completing their respective events during the final phase,” said BOA secretary general Syed Shahed Reza.
There was a demand of involving the national federations in the youth games from the preliminary phase but the BOA completed the district and divisional phases with the help of district and divisional sports associations.
“It was not possible for the federations to coordinate such vast activities at district level. We did it successfully at district and divisional level with the involvement of government administration, police and local organsiers,” Reza said. “It is now the national federations' turn to complete the final phase in their own way.”
Some 23,500 athletes from nearly 500 upazilas of 64 districts took part at the district level competitions before the divisional phase was held with participation of approximately 3500 athletes. Now nearly 2500 athletes are expected to compete for 157 gold medals in 21 disciplines.
The 21 disciplines are: football, volleyball, basketball, hockey, kabaddi, handball, athletics, swimming, badminton, shooting, table tennis, squash, karate, taekwondo, wrestling, judo, wushu, weightlifting, boxing, archery and chess.
For the final phase, BOA has allocated Tk 500 for each athlete for food per day and Tk 400 for accommodation per day but the federation officials are a bit worried about the cost of accommodation around the venues.
The federation officials, however, praised the initiative of introducing the youth games as they believe the games will create a sporting atmosphere across the country.
“Definitely it is a good initiative to introduce the games for the youth,” said Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation's general secretary Khandokar Hasan Monir, who however believes the number athletes could have been bigger had the federations been involved from the beginning.
“The districts were advised to hold only five out of 21 disciplines, but I think the BOA should leave it to the respective districts from the next edition and involve the federations from the beginning so that the games become more effective,” Monir said adding that BTTF is taking proper initiatives to make their event a success.
Meanwhile, The Bangladesh Football Federation wants to start the football discipline from March 4 with 16teams in both boys' and girls' group due to shortage of grounds as well as to complete the games within stipulated time-frame.
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