Every News: Federations free to hold SA Games camps: Arif

Federations free to hold SA Games camps: Arif
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Director General Arif Ibrahim on Monday invited all sports federations to organise their training camps at the available facilities to train their athletes for the forthcoming 13th South Asian Games to be held in Nepal.In an exclusive interview with The News, Director General PSB quashed the impression that the government in any way was against such camps. “Through your esteemed newspaper I offer all federations to arrange their camps for the South Asian Games to be held in Nepal. I know well that training is must for athletes and as such we are ready to offer all kind of assistance to federations to hold their camps at the facilities coming under the PSB jurisdiction.”When asked as what kind of facilities, the PSB would provide to federations and athletes, he said that the PSB would offer free accommodations and food to camp athletes. “All those federation athletes who are to participate in the Games would be accommodated. We would provide them with free boarding and food facilities as we have been doing in the past. I know well that players training is one of the most important aspect and we are ready to provide the available facilities to all drawn to compete against South Asian best.”The general impression among federation representatives is that PSB is ready to fulfill their obligation and that is to organize training camps for the SA Games. While all other countries players are busy training for the SA Games, Pakistan have yet to start preparations for the important games. Some of the federation officials including wrestling were seen complaining about the uncooperative attitude of PSB as far as the camp organisation is concerned. “There is no such thing. Every federation willing to organise the camp would be welcomed. We would take all possible measures to help these athletes train hard for the Games.” Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) has recently written a letter to the Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) to help federations restart preparations for the mega event. The POA in its letter to Ministry of IPC said:“When all other South Asian countries teams have already started training and preparations for the SA Games to be held in Nepal in December, the government of Pakistan has yet to give go ahead to start the camp training. Any further delay would mean poor to low performance by teams in different disciplines.” The POA president also reminded the government of issuing the guarantee letter to host the next edition of the games which is due in Pakistan. The letter addressed to the IPC Minister, the POA president said since the dates of the 13th edition of the Games has already been finalised, there was a dire need to start the preparation at the earliest.