Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Oct 21: Arunachal Pradesh has fielded a strong contingent of 184 athletes in the first North East Olympic Games to be held at Khuman Lampak Sports Complex, Imphal Manipur from 24 to 28 October.
The Games will feature 12 sports disciplines -archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, football (men & women), judo, karate, shooting, taekwondo, table tennis, weightlifting and wushu.
The state will compete in all the 12 disciplines.
“On earlier occasions, the state used to hire athletes from outside for big events like NE, National Games, etc,but this time, all the athletes selected for the Games are ‘purely’ from Arunachal Pradesh,” said
Arunachal Olympic Association (AOA) secretary general Abraham K Techi.
“In contrast, some athletes from Arunachal Pradesh are going to represent few other states in the Games, which speak volumes about the progress made by the sportspersons of the state,” said Abraham.
He, however, declined to divulge the names of the athlete(s) and the states they are going to represent.
The state contingent along with the officials will be leaving for Imphal at 10.30am on Monday.
The chief secretary and the director of Sports and Director of Youth Affairs will flag off the team from the Sangay Lhaden Sports Academy complex.
AOA vice president Gechi Doke and Dr Tadang Minu are the chef-de-mission and deputy chef-de-mission respectively.
Meanwhile, Abraham informed that Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Dr Mohesh Chai will attend the opening ceremony of the Games to encourage the state team.
The team:
Archery: Eight women (W), six men (M), Athletics: eight W, 11 M, Badminton: four W, four M, Boxing: eight W, eight M, Football: 18 W+ 18 M), Judo: four W, 5 M, Karate: five W, five M, Shooting: five M, Taekwondo: 11 W, 9 M, Table Tennis: four W, four M, Weightlifting: 7 W, 8 M, Wushu: 12 W, 12 M.
