Lalitpur, December 9

Member Secretary of the National Sports Council today claimed the preparation for the seventh National Games entered the final stage.

“We have come to the final stage of the preparation of the Games and we have been trying to make it a grand success within the given resources and budget,” said Bista at a press meet today.

“We will not be able to provide the participants with the lavish facilities as the athletes get in the Olympic Games or Asian Games, but I am certain that we will not leave any stone unturned in our bid to make it a grand success,” he claimed.

The Games is slated for December 23-30 in Eastern Region and Member Secretary Bista was confident it would not be postpones any more. The Games, which was originally scheduled to be held last year, has been postponed thrice because of blockade and budget crisis.

Bista said the venues were finalised and all of them are almost ready to host the events. “We have decided the venues for all the events and only works related to final touches remain as of now. We still have two weeks time for the Games and all the venues will be ready before time,” he claimed.

The NSC has included a total of 35 sports disciplines in the Games and two events squash and Fencing will be held in Kathmandu.

Three events — swimming, cycling and bodybuilding were held last year and the NSC has decided to count their medals for the Games. “We did not know that the Games would be postponed then, so we have decided to count the medals of the sports which were organised last year,” said Bista.

Out of the 35 sports disciplines included in the Games, medals of four events Archery, Fencing, Golf and Snooker — will not be counted in the overall tally. “As these sports do not have sufficient teams, we will count the medals won by them,” he said.

The NSC has included eight sports Rugby, Dance Sports, Sambo, Rock Climbing, Dohori song, Skating, Rope Skating and Budokaido as exhibition sports. Asked about the inclusion of dohori (singing) as the sports, Bista said he just followed the predecessors. “Nepal Lokdohori Association is registered in the NSC and I thought it right to use the manpower we had instead of hiring others,” said Bista.

Bista said one of the major highlights of the Games is the daily allowances for the athletes. “We have raised the players’ allowance to Rs 1,400 from Rs 800 and for the first time the athletes will receive the amount themselves.

We have eradicated the practice of handing over the amounts to team managers or other officials,” he added.

The opening ceremony of the Games will be held at the Sahid Maidan and President Vidhya Devi Bhandari is scheduled to inaugurate the national sporting extravaganza. The NSC has planned to use 1,200 school children, 500 artists from Tribhuvan Army Club, Nepal Police and Nepal APF apart from 100 national and local artists in the opening ceremony.

The torch rally will kick off from Dhangadhi, the venue of the sixth National Games, on December 19 and Olympian athletes will carry the torch to Biratnagar. The closing ceremony will be held in Dharan. The events will be held in Sunsari, Morang, Jhapa, Dhankuta, Siraha and Saptari will Sunsari hosting a maximum of 12 sports disciplines.

Morang will host nine, while five events will be played in Jhapa. Saptari, Siraha and Dhankuta will host one event each. The women’s football tournament will be played in Duhabi, Sunsari from December 17.

Member Secretary Bista said the seventh National Games medallists who make it into their national teams would be give free education. “The NSC will pay the monthly bill of all the medallists of the Games who will be drafted in the national teams of their respective sports,” said Bista.

“We will not give the admission fees but we will take care of the monthly fees wherever and whatever they want to study,” he added. Bista also announced cash incentives of Rs 25,000 each to the athletes who break national records in the Games.

“Apart from the cash rewards, the athletes will be brought into the stadium in paragliding from Bishnu Paduka on the closing day,” he said.

Bista also said that the NSC would provide the monthly allowance to all the South Asian Games medal winning athletes. “We had been providing Rs 5,000 each to the SA Games gold medallists and from next month we will also give Rs 2,500 and Rs 1,000 to silver and bronze medal winners.”