Sports
Kerala edition, best National Games: IOA
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 14
With the 35th
National Games coming to a close, the Kerala government has been cited
by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) which termed the event the best
ever held.
The Games began with the opening ceremony Jan 31 and the closing ceremony is to take place here later Saturday.
"For
us (IOA), athletes are of prime importance and not a single athlete or
official has even raised one complaint. This can otherwise be termed as a
'Kerala Model' and other states can use this model as this has been the
best ever Games held," IOA president N. Ramachandran said here
Saturday.
He pointed out that this Games had lot of uniqueness as this was the first one to be spread across seven districts.
"The
Games Village (that housed close to 5,000 athletes and officials. This
will now be dismantled and sold in auction) is also a first of its kind
concept and it has turned out to be a huge success. Overall when it came
to facilities, food, venues and the conduct, everything was perfect,"
added Ramachandran.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said this happened because of excellent team work.
"We
were just the facilitators for the event and it was the IOA that
conducted the Games. Right from the 'Run Kerala Run' the curtain raiser
event held to popularise the Games, everything went of smoothly," said
Chandy.