Lalitpur, December 23

The first edition of the NSC Championship, which features 29 sports disciplines to be held in different parts of the country, is beginning here on Sunday.

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari is scheduled to inaugurate the event amidst a programme at the International Sports Complex, while first international medal winning

legendary athlete JitBahadur KC has been handed with the honour of lighting the cauldron, informed National Sports Council Member Secretary Keshab Kumar Bista at a press meet today.

The 29 sports associations will take part in march past, while taekwondo and wushu will present the demonstration apart from cultural performances from various groups. “Apart from that, 200 school children will perform dance during the two-hour long opening ceremony,” said Bista. The NSC has selected peacock as the mascot of the championship with “My Legacy, My Pride, My Sports” being the slogan.

The Championship features 29 sports disciplines and the respective national associations will hold the tournaments from December 24 to January 23 next year in different parts of the country, with 12 events being held outside the valley. Four associations — swimming, triathlon, karate and tennis — have already finished their tournaments.

“We have allocated budget to the national associations and they are responsible of organising the tournaments,” said Bista. “The All Nepal Football Association has been allocated with the highest amount of Rs 2.2 million, while volleyball will get two million rupees. Likewise, karate, taekwondo, athletics and basketball have been allotted with Rs 1.8m.”

Cricket, arguably the second popular sports of the country, has not been included in the championship. “The idea of organising the NSC Championship is to select the national teams and players for the Asian Games and South Asian Games. We didn’t include cricket in the event as it is not in the regional games,” said Bista.

Asked about the inclusion of two taekwondo associations in the event, Bista said he continued with the tradition. “Both the associations were in the Lumbini Championship and we were not able to convince them,” said Bista. “But we have already started the unification of the two associations and hopefully we will have one body in the next edition.”