Manipur eye more medals

34th National games

A player in action during the 1st National Lawn Bowls Championship held in Guwahati in December 2008. File picture Imphal, April 18 : Manipur will be eyeing some additional medals for its kitty from two more disciplines — lawn bowls and squash — in the 34th National Games at Jharkhand scheduled to be held in June this year. Talking to The Telegraph, the secretary of the Manipur Olympic Association, L. Manglem Singh, said, “We have received verbal approval from the respective federations of lawn bowls and squash that we can field our players. Though the disciplines are not very popular in the state, we do have players in lawn bowls and squash and hope to obtain some medals in these events as well. We are anticipating a written approval at any moment,” he said. “Apart from these two events, Manipur will field players in 24 disciplines at the National Games in Jharkhand. The non-residential training has already started from April 5. The state contingent will have a strength of 617, including officials,” the MOA secretary said. The events in which Manipur have already confirmed participation include archery, athletics, aquatics, boxing, cycling, canoeing and kayaking, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, handball, judo, kho-kho, netball, rowing, shooting, wushu, wrestling, weightlifting, sepak takraw, karate, rugby, taekwondo and triathlon. “We are very hopeful that we will perform well in the Jharkhand”, Singh said. Declining to comment on the expected medal haul, Manglem said, “We will try to do better than the last edition of the National Games held in Guwahati”. “We have also charted out our officials for the Games with N. Shyamnanda Singh, IPS officer as chef-de-mission while A. Jiten, N. Phoni and S. Joy Singh will be deputy chefs-de-mission. Apart from it, we have three team doctors, L. Birendra Singh, S. Arunkumar Singh and A.K. Joy Singh,” the MOA secretary further added.