‘Khelo Lucknow’ to have over 32K participants

LUCKNOW : Over 32,000 budding sportspersons from the rural pockets of Lucknow will participate in a district level sports meet ‘Khelo Lucknow’ slated to be held at KD Singh ‘Babu’ Stadium on December 30.

The district administration’s first-of-its-kind initiative aims to provide a platform to budding sportspersons from rural areas.

Officials said the competition being organised for the first time in the city received good response from rural folks as more than 32,000 candidates got themselves registered for the sports meet.

“The participants have been classified into two categories — junior level (10 to 16 years) and senior level (17 to 30 years),” said Kaushal Raj Sharma, district

magistrate.

Of the 32,000 registered candidates, the 10,000 will participate in the 100 metres sprint event. Besides, over 1,056 teams of kabaddi, 144 teams of volleyball, 734 of kho kho would participate in the competitions, he added.

Sharma said prior to the final meet on December 30, the event would witness more than half a dozen sub-sports meets at the

village, gram, development block and tehsil levels and the finalists would participate in the event at Lucknow.

Manish Bansal, chief development officer (CDO), said the programme was based on the theme of central government’s scheme ‘Khelo India’ — the national level multidisciplinary grassroots games for under-17 schools-goers.

“This time, we would be having a full-fledged sports meet that would see games like long jump, high jump, kho-kho, kabaddi, volleyball, marathon and 100 m, 400 m and 1,500 m sprint,” said Bansal.

For the sports meet, the youngsters had applied through a link ‘Khelo Lucknow’ on the official website of Lucknow Mahotsav.

He said the winners would be given a cash prize, memento and a certificate on the final day of the annual event.

THE SPORTS EVENT ON DECEMBER 30 AIMS TO PROVIDE A PLATFORM TO BUDDING SPORTSPERSONS FROM RURAL AREAS