Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Singh Thakur on Tuesday kicked off BIMSTEC Aquatics Championships 2024 in New Delhi. The BIMSTEC Aquatics Championships is being held for the first time.
On the occasion, Thakur said the world’s 25 per cent population lives in South Asia and Southeast Asian region. With the coming together of seven BIMSTEC countries, the Bay of Bengal area not only becomes a region used for travel and transportation, but also becomes an area of progress, development and collaboration, he added.
The Union minister added that this will help in not only deeper friendship but also build a deeper sporting culture which will help deepen friendship among athletes and that is exactly the thought that Prime Minister Narendra Modi envisioned when he announced this sporting event at the summit in Nepal.
The announcement for the organization of the sports competition was announced by Modi during the 4th BIMSTEC Summit in 2018. The event was initially proposed for 2021. However, it was postponed to 2024 due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world.
The four-day 1st BIMSTEC Aquatics Championships is being held at Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Swimming Pool Complex with competitions being held for Under the 20 years category in swimming, water polo and diving events.
A total of 39 medals will be given out across three sporting events along with nine trophies that will be at stake. Over 500 athletes are expected at the events, including 268 from various BIMSTEC member countries.
BIMSTEC (The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) constitutes a unique link between South and South-East Asian countries with five members from South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka) and two members from South-East Asia (Myanmar and Thailand).