Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan will be sending a 397-member (298 athletes and 99 officials) contingent to Indonesia for the Jakarta Asian Games starting there from August 18 to September 2. Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium in Jakarta will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games. For the first time, the Asian Games will be co-hosted in two cities: the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, which is hosting the Games for the first time since 1962, and Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra province. Events will be held in and around the two cities, including venues in Bandung and province of West Java. Hanoi, Vietnam was the original host of the Games, but withdrew due to financial constraints. The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) then awarded the Games to Indonesia.

In all, Pakistan has won 199 medals at the Asian Games starting from 1951: 44 gold, 64 silver and 91 bronze medals. At 2010 Asian Games at Guangzhou, China, Pakistan won three gold (field hockey, women’s cricket and squash), two silver (squash and wushu) and three bronze (men’s cricket, snooker and kabaddi) medals to score 20th position. In the last Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea in 2014, Pakistan manage one gold (women’s cricket), one silver (field hockey) and three bronze medals (kabaddi, boxing and wushu) to finish at 23rd position with five medals.

It is interesting to note that the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) is sponsoring 300 athletes and officials while 97 athletes and officials are being sponsored by their respective national federations. Pakistan will be participating in 36 disciplines – archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, bridge, equestrian, fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, handball, hockey, ju-jitsu, kabaddi, karate, kurash, paragliding, pencak silat, rowing, rugby, sailing, sepaktakraw, shooting, soft tennis, sport climbing, squash, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu. The national training camps for all disciplines will start from June 20 at different venues of the country. Most of these camps will be sponsored by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB).

“The first meeting of all stakeholders was held at POA office in Lahore in January this year to discuss the possibility of participating sports with strength of athletes and officials. Another important meeting was held in Islamabad on June 6, under the chairmanship of the Pakistan Sports Board director general, of all stakeholders and criteria for participation was devised with a decision to hold a final meeting in Lahore on June 13 to finalise the Pakistan contingent for 36 disciplines,” POA secretary general Muhammad Khalid Mahmood said Wednesday. He added in this last meeting the national federations gave their proposals and suggestions and also expected performance of the athletes in the said Games. “Pakistan athletes, both male and female in individual and team sports, have the potential to show better performance in these Games,” maintained Khalid.

Published in Daily Times, June 14^th 2018.