South Asian Games inaugurated in Dhaka

DHAKA - India will be overwhelming favourites to sweep honours at the 11th South Asian Games which were inaugurated amid much fanfare here Friday.

Bangladesh Prime minister Sheikh Hasina declared the Games open after a three-and-a-half hour colourful inaugural ceremony at Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) here.

Bangladesh are hosting the event for the third time after staging the 1985 and 1993 editions when the Games were called South Asian Federation (SAF) Games.

In the morning, the national flags of eight participating countries were hoisted at the SAARC Fountain at Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue.

Commonwealth Games gold winning shooter Asif Hossain Khan carried the Bangladesh national flag in the opening ceremony.

Besides hosts Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, the Maldives and Afghanistan are taking part in the Games, that will be one of the largest ever. Nearly 1,800 athletes are competing in 23 disciplines in the 12-day event.

Regional powerhouse India will look to show their supermacy among the eight participating nations. In the last Games at Colombo, India bagged 118 gold, 69 silver and 47 bronze medals taking their total tally to 234.

The competitions will take place at 19 venues spread over Dhaka, Sylhet, Khulna, Rajshahi and Chittagong.

Bangladesh is fielding the biggest contingent of 453 participants followed by Nepal’s 430. India has sent a contingent of 331 members. However, India is not participating in the under-21 Twenty20 cricket that has been introduced in the Games for the first time.

India will be strong contenders in most of the disciplines. Swimming, shooting, athletics are the events expected to fetch maximum medals for India.

The Indian lifters have also been cleared to participate after the national federation paid $50,000 as the first instalment of their $500,000 fine imposed by International Weightlifting Federation for the positive dope tests.