TEAM HERALD
sports@herald-goa.com
MAPUSA: The 6th Senior National Beach Kabaddi championships for men and women organized by Goa Kabaddi Association (GKA) under the aegis of Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India will be held from May 2 to 5 at Calangute beach, Calangute.
“This is the first national beach kabaddi championships to be held in Goa and being held in Calangute makes it more special,” said Michael Lobo, MLA, briefing media persons in Panjim, Saturday.
“Fifty teams from 25 states which will cover 400 players and 150 officials will participate in the event to be conducted on league-cum-knock-out basis for which there will be six courts,” informed Dattaram Kamat, president, GKA.
“The estimated cost is Rs 42 lakh and the State government has already sanctioned Rs 5 lakh,” informed Kamat.
Rs 50,000 will be awarded to the winners, Rs 30,000 for the runners-up and Rs 20,000 for the third place in men and women categories besides individual cash prizes of Rs 30,000.
“The government is doing its best to promote kabaddi in the state. This event will boost the tourism sector and I am thankful to the tourism department for their corporation. After successfully organizing beach soccer at Calangute beach in February we have requested the government to host the event annually. We also have plans to organize an international volleyball championship that will attract tourists to the state,” stated Lobo.
Matches will be played from 5 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. under floodlights with the opening ceremony slated on May 2 at 5 p.m. The closing ceremony will be held on May 5 at 8.30 p.m.
Mahabaleshwar Surlikar, Shrikrishna Naik, Baburao Vernekar, Virendra Parwar, Somnath Pal, Dattaram Parab, Prajoy Morajkar, Narayan Marathe, Sureb Kankolkar, Shivaji Malkar and other GKA office bearers and organizing committee members were those among present.