Lalitpur, June 2

The executive committee meeting of Nepal Olympic Committee today decided to propose 23 sports disciplines for the 13th South Asian Games to be hosted by Nepal in 2019.

The NOC meeting — chaired by president Jeevan Ram Shrestha — was held at the All Nepal Lawn Tennis Association board room as its building at Satdobato is captured by the officials of the Supreme Court-reinstated NOC led by Rukma Shumsher Rana.

The meeting reached the decision to put 23 sports disciplines in priority and propose at the South Asian Olympic Council meet slated for June 6-7 in Thimpu, Bhutan. The sports disciplines to be proposed in the SAOC meeting was finalised by the meeting held at the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

According to the MoYS sources, the meeting decided to include karate, sepak takraw and fencing in the 13th edition of the regional sporting extravaganza, while two sports disciplines — hockey and kho-kho — have been omitted from the list.

“Nepal had requested the Indian officials to add karate, sepak takraw and fencing in the 12th SA Games held in Guwahati and Shillong in 2015 but majority of the member nations rejected our proposal then. As we are hosting the Games in 2019, we have decided to add these sports this time around,” the ministry official said. Asked about the exclusion of hockey and kho-kho, the official said: “It was not feasible to include these two disciplines due to the lack of infrastructure.”

The NOC meeting also decided to participate in the Asian Indoor Games to be held later this year in Turkmenistan and send two officials to the Regional Anti-Doping Organisation meeting slated for August 3-4 in Bhutan. Also, the NOC decided to request all the national associations to celebrate June 23 — the beginning of Modern Olympics — by organising various programmes from June 17-23.