Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 21 Oct: Arunachal Olympic Association (AOA) president Taba Tedir on Friday announced a 328-strong contingent, including 275 athletes and 53 officials, for the upcoming second North East Olympic Games (NEOG) in Meghalaya.
The team also included some veteran golfers, including Jarken Gamlin, Hemonto Panging, Mohonto Panging, and former minister L Wanglat.
Except swimming, Arunachal will be participating in all other 17 disciplines – archery (12), athletics (20), badminton (10), basketball (24), boxing (17), cycling (9), football (men & women -36), golf (9), judo (16), karate (28), shooting (11), table tennis (8), taekwondo (32), tennis (3), wushu (17), weightlifting (12), and wrestling (11).
The Games will be held from 10 to 16 November.
Bulang Marik and Kipa Ajay are the chef-de-mission and the deputy chef-de-mission, respectively.
The AOA president, who had set Arunachal a five-gold medal target at the 36th National Games earlier this month, set the bar high this time for the state, urging the team to win at least one gold medal in every discipline.
When the first edition of the NE Olympic Games was held in Imphal (Manipur) in 2018, Arunachal had won 18 gold, 20 silver and 38 bronze medals and had finished third behind champion Manipur (79 gold, 47 silver, 31 bronze) and runners-up Assam (45, 52, 41).
Tedir, however, said he expects that Arunachal will surpass the past record and will win 25 to 30 gold medals this time.
He also took stock of the athletes’ preparations for the upcoming Games to see if everything was on track or if anything was pending and requiring to be addressed.
The presidents and secretaries of all the state level sports associations attended the meeting and highlighted the various problems faced by them.
Almost all the associations, barring a few, lamented the lack of infrastructure and coaches to train the athletes.
Earlier, chef-de-mission for the recently held 36th National Games, Abraham K Techi, briefed the participants about the state’s performance in the Games.
Arunachal won six gold medals and one silver medal in the Games.
Techi said that Arunachal had been offered the opportunity to host the second edition of the NEOG.
“Unfortunately, the state could not host the Games as the state government expressed its inability to provide fund,” Techi, who is also the founder general secretary of the North East Olympic Association, said.
“Later, the Meghalaya government shouldered to host the Games,” he added.
AOA secretary-general Bamang Tago briefed about the upcoming Games.
Among others, AOA life president Likha Tara also attended the meeting.
