Manipur Hosts 1st Northeast Olympic Games

Imphal (Manipur) [India] Nov 2 (ANI): Players of national and international level geared up for the first-ever Northeast Olympic Games in Manipur's host city Imphal.

Organized by the Manipur Olympic Association under the aegis of Northeast Olympic Association, the championship acted as a platform for the players to showcase and nurture their talent in different sports discipline.

The game was a first-of-its-kind which saw a competition in 12 different disciplines including Athletics, Archery, Badminton, Boxing, Football, Judo, Karate-Do, Shooting, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Weightlifting and Wushu.

More than 2,000 sportspersons from eight northeastern states took part in the competition.

Chief Minister N Biren Singh graced the event as the Chief Guest. Mahesh Chai, Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Arunachal Pradesh, L. Jayentakumar, Minister of Health, Letpao Haokip, Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, and Th. Radheshyam Singh, Minister of Education and Chairman, Organizing Committee were present as the Guest of Honours and president respectively.

Arunachal Pradesh player, Jyoti Mane, said, "Felt really good to participate and I gave my first best shot with 14:43..Others are also from Assam.I feel really good to clinch gold and I will keep trying to do better and prepare myself in for the international championships including Asian games, Olympic games etc."

After some of the arduous matches among the players in different sports discipline, Manipur secured the first place among all the states by clinching 159 medals including 80 gold, 48 silver, and 31 bronze medals in the Games.

On the other hand, Assam secured the second place by clinching 140 medals including 46 gold, 53 silver, and 41 bronze medals whereas, Arunachal Pradesh stood third clinching 76 medals including 18 gold, 20 silver and 38 bronze medals in the games.

It is worth noting that athletes from eight states of northeast participated and competed with each other in 12 different sporting disciplines in the five days long games. Parade by a large number of contingents from all the north-eastern states held the attention of the spectators who turned out to witness the most interesting series of games.

Joint Secretary of Assam Olympic Association, Anup Kumar Choudhury is also satisfied with all the arrangements of the Games and said, "I am very proud because within a very short period we can arrange our whole teams because we are not getting the sufficient time to prepare our own team, along with the senior players, the junior players participated, did a good job and brought laurels. It is for the first time that we participated and got the second runners-up."

Deputy Chief Minister of Manipur Yumnam Joykumar Singh along with few other state dignitaries distributed the trophies to the winning teams of the games.

During the closing ceremony, Minister Joykumar stressed the need to train young players in the suitable sporting disciplines so that they could compete and bring laurels even in the international arena. (ANI)

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