After a fortnight-long intense sporting action, the curtain was rung down on the 34th National Games at the Birsa Munda Athletics Stadium at Mega Sports Complex here on Saturday with a sprightly and colourful closing ceremony.
The five-hour programme, watched by a capacity crowd at Hotwar, brought to an end to one of the biggest and well-attended Games in which competitions were held in 33 disciplines in three cities of Jharkhand.
It was indeed a moment of great delight and immeasurable pride for the people of Jharkhand and the State Government that the Games, postponed six times, finally concluded in a manner appreciated by all.
The Games, riddled with mismanagement and hiccups at the start mainly owing to lack of experience of the local administration and officials, settled down to smooth conduct through the later part of the fortnight.
Services takes honours
At the end of it all, Services emerged as the best sporting unit with a whopping haul of 70 gold, 50 silver and 42 bronze medals for a total of 162, a tally that surpassed its previous best of 59-46-37 achieved at the last Games in 2007.
The ceremony began with a glider making sorties over the Stadium at 4.45 p.m. This was followed by the performance of the Army band. After the dignitaries arrived, nine sky divers from Indian Air Force led by Wing Commander Vasant Raj dropped down from the sky and landed inside the stadium to the lusty cheers from the crowd. The athletes, led by medal table topper Services followed by Manipur, trooped in to the accompaniment of the military band.
This ushered in the formal part of the ceremony with speeches by the guests. Richa Mishra of Delhi and Virdhawal Khade of Maharashtra, the two who were adjudged as the best female and male athletes of the Games, were awarded IOA Trophies.
Services was given the Raja Bhalendra Trophy which was received by Air Marshal J.N. Verma on behalf of the Services Sports Control Board. Manipur was adjudged as the best State and was given a trophy as well.
Over to Kerala
After the Indian Olympic Association president, Suresh Kalmadi declared the Games closed, the OCA flag was ceremoniously lowered and handed over to the president of the Kerala Olympic Association president, M.M. Abdul Rahman, and Kerala Sports Council president, T.P. Dasan. Kerala will be the host of the 35th edition in seven cities spread across the State in December next year.
In a most poignant moment, the sacred flame was put out marking the end of the Games and the festivities associated with them. To lift up the sagging spirit, the cultural programme took the centrestage with a tribal musical ensemble and an audio-visual presentation.
The folk artists from Manipur along with Punjab's Bhangra performers took over to captivate the audience. A special show ‘Bidaai' (farewell), a song and dance tribute to commemorate the victory after hurdles and challenges was performed to thank Mother Nature.
Over 170 dancers and performers from Kerala showcased the State's rich cultural heritage by performing Kalaripayattu, Kathakali, Mohiniattam and finally captivated the audience with the Shingarimelam and Kerala horns.
Famous singer Shaan and actress Katrina Kaif came on the stage to regale the audience and the ceremony concluded with laser show and fireworks.
Keywords: National Games 2011
If Indian Government pay a little attention to Sport facilities in Manipur, I hope India will be in better position in Olympics.
It was an excellent game hosted by a newly formed state.But the media showed apathy for the games and was busy covering even insignificant games.
MANIPUR TOPS TALLY:: Services (sporting unit, according to this correspondent) has once again topped the National Games 2011 medal tally. But please remember, the services have all the facilities available at their disposal. All the sports analysts should rather ponder over the fact that a small state like Manipur severely affected by political violence and social turmoil have maintained the second position for the last few games. It was even disheartening to watch DD Sports anchors and analysts' refraining from giving their comments on the victory of this small state over all the other states in the games. Manipur is first amongst all the states in India that have topped the medal tally. Despite a good show by Haryana, specifically in wrestling and boxing, it could not beat Manipur. Maharashtra and Delhi with the best sports training facilities still could not beat Manipur. Next state to watch out for is Jharkhand. By the way if anyone takes a cursory glance at the Gold Medal winners from all the states, s/he will acknowledge the fact that many more gold medals were won by sports-persons of Manipur origin. Ten Gold medals for Services (Team as well as individuals) were won by players of Manipur origin, Four Gold (individual) in Wushu for Delhi, Six Gold medals for Maharashtra and numerous others including weightlifting. Please acknowledge there is no sports persons of other states migrating to Manipur for better performance or to better Manipur's position. For this edition of the National Games, I think many sports journos and commentators have missed out some facts. 35 Manipuri atheltes and players won medals for Services, 17 of them won medals for Jharkhand, 11 for Delhi, six for Kerala, 34 for Madhya Pradesh, two for Uttar Pradesh, one for Karnataka, two for Andhra Pradesh, 21 for Assam, two for Orissa and one for Bihar. Their total sums up to 132 Manipuri players. 132 is the sporting 'export' figure from Manipur and Zero is the 'import' figure.
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