Guwahati, June 17 : The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) vice-president and Assam MP Bhubaneswar Kalita today said the apex sport body would try to host the next edition of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Games, also known as the South Asia Federation (SAF) Games, in Guwahati.
This edition of SAF Games will take place in Delhi in 2012. Bhutan was supposed to host the games, but they expressed their inability and Delhi was one of the fallback options available.
Kalita today said the groundwork has been done and the subsequent edition of SAF Games could take place in Guwahati. The games were earlier held in Calcutta in 1987 and Chennai in 1995.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a press conference for the 9th Asian Armwrestling Championship, Kalita said: “The IOA is keen on hosting a SAF Games in Guwahati. We tried to bid for the games in Sri Lanka last year itself but could not do so because of the Delhi Commonwealth Games and other constraints. The deck has now been cleared and we (the IOA) will bid for the mega event in the very next opportunity we get. We hope to host the Games within the next five years.”
“The 33rd National Games was a grand success following which Assam has come out as a prominent sporting venue in the Olympic charter map. Besides, the event has also ushered in a sporting revolution in the state. It is time we utilised our world-class infrastructure to host bigger events so that the new generation gets attracted to sports and adopt it professionally,” Kalita added.
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