09-Jul-2009 128
It is now clear that parallel gateball teams will represent India in the 8th World Games to be held at Kaohsiung city in Chinese Taipei from July 16 to 26. Selected by rival national bodies, both the teams, however, been invited officially by Chinese Taipei Gateball Association.
INDIAN Gateball Association (IGA), the old body, named an eight-member team today, while the newly formed Indian Gateball Union (IGU) had announced an 11-member four days ago.
Incidentally, all the players of the parallel National teams have been selected from Orissa and would leave for Kaohsiung city the same day, July 15. Interestingly, none of the governing bodies of the sport in the country has been able to obtain recognition of the World Gateball Union (WGU). At present, the Japan-based WGU has only 14 member countries in its administrative structure.
Gateball has been included in the World Games as one of the six demonstration events or Sports Park Activities (SPA). World Games are held once in every four years, under the aegis of International World Games Association (IWGA). Twenty-six official sports and and five invitational sports have also been included in the Games, which is known as the biggest extravaganza of non-Olympic sports.
IGA team: Manoranjan Mishra (capt), Biswa Ranjan Mishra, Arabinda Kumar Chhotaray, Ranjan Kumar Nanda, Arabinda Mahapatra, Lalit Kumar Dash, Prasant Kumar Nayak, Niranjan Mangaraj.
Photo caption: The IGA gateball team for the World Games 2009 poses in Bhubaneswar on July 9, 2009.
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