35th National Games to be held at Kerala from Jan 31 to Feb 14

New Delhi, January 23, 2015: 35th National Games will be held at Kerala from January 31 to February 14, 2015, teams in 31 various sports disciplines have qualified form Haryana. The Haryana Team is participating with a Medal winning Squad comprising of Arjuna Awardees and Olympians including, Olympian Seema Antil, Om Praksh Karhana (Athletics), Manoj Kumar, Sumit Sangwan, Pinki Jangra Pooja (Boxing) Anup Singh, Jasmer Singh (Kabaddi), Shweta Chaudhary, Anisa Sayyed, Vivek Singh, Sanjiv Rajput (Shooting) etc. and the youngest participant of National Games Kerala is nine years old Suhana in Table Tennis Women Double. 

This was stated by Engineer Kuldeep Sharma, Secretary General of Haryana Chess Association (HCA) affiliated to Haryana Olympic Association on Thursday. He said total number of Contingent will be of 553 Participants including 463 athletes and 90 Coaches and Managers.

The entries for the Archery, Athletics, Basket Ball, Beach Hand Ball, Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Canoeing and Kayaking, Fencing, Football (Women), Gymnastics, Handball, Hockey, Kabaddi, Netball, Rowing, Rugby 7s, Shooting, Squash, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Triathlon, Volleyball, Weight Lifting, Wushu and Yatching has been submitted to the Organizing Committee online. The Travel Expenses of the Teams, Daily allowance for the Journey Days, and Sports and Playing Kits to the teams will be provided by the Government of Haryana. Haryana secured overall 3rd Place in last Games, this time the hopes are high and much better.

The Accreditation forms of the Badminton Team, Wrestling Team, Cycling Team and Judo team has not been yet received and Sub-Committee of IOA have asked the Secretaries of all three concerned Associations to submit the duly filled forms. Sub-Committee of IOA have made reminded requests to their concerned National Sports Federation.

He said that  all the forms of Haryana Contingent had been submitted online from the office of the Indian Olympic Association as decided by IOA.  Vijay Prakash as Chef De Mission, Narender Mor as Deputy Chef De Mission and Rajkumar Mittan as Contingent Secretary has attended the Chef De Mission Meeting at Trivandrum on 15th January 2015 and visited all Games Village and venues and found everything in line. The Games will be inaugurated on 31st January 2015.

Kuldeep Sharma said the teams of Haryana were stuck when Learned Court of Law has restrained the office bearers of Haryana Olympic Association Sher Singh Barsami (President) HS Bhadu (Secretary) to work as the office bearers. Therefore HS Bhadu, Associate Executive Member of Indian Olympic Association and Vice President of Athletics Federation of India has requested IOA to form a Sub Committee of IOA comprising of IOA Member, Eminent Sports Person from Haryana and a Nominee of Government of Haryana to send the Entries of Haryana Contingent to the National Games Organising Committee so that the Athletes of Haryana would not Suffer. On the request of Bhadu the IOA in the larger interest of Sports Persons of Haryana constituted a Sub Committee under the Chairmanship of  Rakesh Gupta, Joint Secretary IOA, Dalel Singh Arjuna Award (Eminent Sports Person), Director Sports, KUK and Jagdeep Singh, Director Sports Haryana as Govt. Nominee.

The IOA further nominated three Sports administrators from Haryana who has wide experience of Sports administration especially during the National Games as Contingent Officers,  Vijay Prakash has been nominated as Chef De Mission, Narender Singh Mor as Deputy Chef De Mission and Rajkumar Mittan as Contingent Secretary.

Rakesh Gupta,  Dalel Singh,  Vijay Prakash,  Narender Singh Mor, Rajkumar Mittan, Engineer Kuldeep Sharma and all other office bearers of State Sports Associations, team coaches managers and athletes expressed their sincere thanks to the Government of Haryana particularly to Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister, Anil Vij, Sports Minister and  Jagdeep Singh, Director Sports, Haryana for their whole hear-ted support./(SK Vyas/Jalandhar)