Finally, after nearly a decade, Goa is indeed hosting the National Games, even if it’s the 37th edition instead of the 36th, which was snatched away by an angry IOA and handed over to Gujarat last year.
It was a veritable badge of honour for Goa’s sporting fraternity on Thursday when the first match of the Badminton competition began at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium on the Taleigao plateau.
And, it was heartening to see Goa’s women shuttlers play their hearts out against Punjab. Although they ended on the losing side, the Goa team went down 2-3 but left the courts with their heads held high. It could well have been a different story and our girls may have ended on the winning side, had it not been for the injury suffered by losing narrowly with one of its players Anjana Kumari suffering an injury during the third single’s match and being forced to concede it.
There’s lot of sporting action in store as Goa finally earns a feather in its cap as it inches closer to achieving its longed for goal of being a host of the National Games.
And while all the euphoria is on, with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Sports Minister Govind Gaude stomping around the venues with press parties in tow, from here on it is hoped that it’s the sporting action and the athletes who will be the focus of the hosts for the next fortnight, not just the VIPs and VVIPs.
