Nepal has started the selection of athletes for the 11th South Asian Games (SAG) to be held in Bangladesh from Jan. 29 to Feb. 9 next year, The Rising Nepal Daily reported on Saturday.
“Owing to various circumstances, the selection and preparation for the South Asian Games extravaganza has been delayed,” the member secretary of National Sports Council (NSC) Hari Babu Chaudhary told a press conference here, unveiling a three-phase SAG preparation plan.
Chaudhary said that Nepal will strive to win medals.
“Despite being late in the preparation, we hope to better the performance than the last edition of SAG held in Sri Lanka,” he said.
The 11th edition of SAG features 23 sports, including archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, cricket, cycling, golf, handball, hockey, judo, kabaddi, karate, soccer shooting, squash, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, weightifting, wrestling and wushu.
Cricket has been featured for the first time in the history of the SAG.
The SAG had been scheduled for November 2009 but owing to the political instability in Bangladesh, the event has been postponed to January 2010.