With two days left for the official inauguration of the 35th National Games, teams from competing States have started arriving in batches at various venues across the State from Wednesday.
Thiruvananthapuram, which hosts the majority of events in 14 venues across the district, saw a steady stream of officials and sportspersons from other States.
Teams from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Services, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Karnataka, Manipur, Goa, and Odisha arrived in the capital city on Wednesday and Thursday.
Kannur, which is hosting wrestling and basketball, saw the arrival of teams from Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.
Teams from West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Telengana, Uttarakhand, which will be taking part in beach volleyball, football and volleyball, arrived in Kozhikode on Thursday.
Teams from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Bihar, and Odisha arrived in Ernakulam, which will be hosting yachting, lawn bowls, fencing, badminton, table tennis, and archery.
An 18-member rowing team from Odisha arrived in Alappuzha on Wednesday evening while a 19-member team from Services also arrived on Wednesday night.
By midnight on Wednesday, teams from Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh arrived for taking part in canoeing and kayaking, which will be hosted in Alappuzha.
On Wednesday, teams from Services, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, UP, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Karnataka arrived in Kollam, which will be hosting hockey and rugby.
Kerala is fielding the biggest contingent and is taking part in the most number of events in the games. The Kerala teams for the National Games have arrived at different venues across the State.
While officials and sportspersons in Thiruvananthapuram will stay at the Games Village at Menamkulam, the sportspersons in the other centres will be provided three-star accommodation by the organising committee.
Hearty welcome
The Kazhakuttam railway station, near here, wore a festive look on Thursday morning as Kerala prepared to welcome the 200-strong contingent from Manipur to the National Games.
As the Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram express rolled to a stop, the team members were welcomed by Sports Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan who presented a rose flower each to the team members.
Various art forms of Kerala, including chenda melam, theyyam, Mohiniyattom and a panchavadyam, were part of the welcome team. Also present was Ammu, the mascot of the Games.
The team members posed for selfies with the mascot and the artists. Of the 200 team members, only 80 got off the train at Kazhakuttam. The rest of the contingent would be proceeding to venues outside the capital city. District Collector Biju Prabhakar was among those present.
