PANJIM: Sports Secretary Keshav Chandra today led a government delegation
to inspect the works at Nehru Stadium at Fatorda, Margao in connection with the hosting of 3rd Lusofonia Games from November 2-10, 2013.
FOR LUSOFONIA: Sports secretary Keshav Chandra,
SAG’s ED Elvis Gomes, SAG’s chief engineer Chimulkar,
Superintendent engineer Desphande, consultant
Prashant, Delhi’s R K Sachetei of Commonwealth Games
Organising Committee (JDG) fame and others inspecting
the Nehru Stadium, Fatorda in connection with the
3rd Lusofonia Games, Tuesday.
The team comprised SAG’s Executive Director Elvis Gomes, SAG’s infrastructure chief engineer Chimulkar, superintendent engineer Deshpande, consultant Prashant. Also present was Delhi’s R K Sachetei. What is his actual role is not known, but those in the know, remember him as part of the team (JDG coordinator) responsible for planning, coordination, execution of all functional area plans in order to deliver the Commonwealth Games.
The demolition work of the East Stand at Fatorda is now complete and the work in the West as well as South stands is expected to start anytime after December 9, when the stadium will be vacated with I-League matches shifted to Tilak Stadium in Vasco.
Work is full progress for complete renovation of the stadium to be ready for the opening of the Games on November 2, 2013.
Meanwhile, the first technical committee meeting involving the representatives of national federations was held in the city.
Anil Kamat, AIFF’s assistant general secretary and director of competitions stated that the football championship will kick off on November 2 and could go upto November 9, depending on the number of teams, which till now is an unknown quantity. With eight to nine countries (teams), matches will be played on November 2 and 3 with a break on November 4. Thereafter, there could be breaks on November 6 and 8 with the final on November 9. “But all this is very tentative, as it is not certain as to how many countries will participate in football,” remarked Anil.
“If there are more than nine teams, then the competition may have to start a day or two earlier than the opening ceremony, like it happens in Olympics. It is only when the number of teams is known that the AIFF will be able to give the calendar,” added Anil.
Anil stated that by November 26, all the federations had been asked to submit the technical specifications with full details. “We need to formulate the terms and regulations and determine the size of each contingent, game wise. We need to finalise the event manual to be followed by the participating nations,” stated Anil.
The overall schedule and organizational matters were discussed with the federation representatives, who scrutinized the plans for hosting the events and after their suggestions were accepted, the final plans were more or less approved.
The event manual was also perused, but since there were more details to be worked out, the final report is expected to be finalized in the last week of this month.
It appeared as if volleyball, basketball and table tennis will have just one venue at the Goa University campus. The three events will be staggered with volleyball being played on taraflex surface. Consequently, the schedule will have to be reworked, it is learnt.
It may be recalled that a workshop on organization of the Games was organised by SAG in September with Jarnail Sing, retired IAS officer and chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee, New Delhi conducting the same. He was assisted by R. K. Sacheti and A.K. Saxena. A presentation was made by Keshav Chandra, IAS. Jarnail, Sacheti and Saxena shared their views, experiences and shortcoming during organization of the Commonwealth Games. It covered intricate details of every aspect of the organization, to avoid any flaws and untoward incidents and to ensure that the Games are a huge success.
Besides Anil, Manohar Bangere (judo), Kuldeep Handoo (wushu), Tony Daniel (athletics), Vero Nunes (TT), P Margalaingam (volleyball), Pravin Borse (taekwondo), Norman Isdaac (basketball) were the respective federation representatives who attended the meeting with Shripad Naik, MP and GOA president, sports secretary Keshav Chandra, SAG’s ED Elvis Gomes, chief engineerChimulkar andGurudatt Bhakta, GOA secretary.
