India to bid for 2025 Asian Beach Games: IOA

Vinayak Padmadeo

New Delhi, March 21

India is likely to bid for the Asian Beach Games to be held in 2025. A delegation of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), headed by interim president Raja Randhir Singh, met Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha here today.

As per Usha, the likely venue will be Goa. “We will speak first with the Goa Chief Minister (Pramod Sawant) and then take it up from there,” Usha said.

For the bid to be officially lodged, the IOA needs a supporting letter from the state government as well as the central government, and Usha seems confident.

The Asian Beach Games could be the first multi-sport event hosted by India after the infamous 2010 Commonwealth Games, which were marred by corruption cases.

Raja Randhir said that it was a good opportunity for India to host the Beach Games. For OCA, this partnership will mean cementing old ties — India hosted the first Asian Games in 1951 before getting the 1981 edition.

“The concept of the Beach Games is to connect sports and tourism. You have a lot cities full of tourists so additionally they can enjoy sports,” OCA director general Hussain Al Musallam told The Tribune. “It is cost effective as you don’t need big infrastructure. All you need is nature, which is sand and the ocean,” he added.

High performance centre

Additionally, Al Musallam, as the president of World Aquatics, is in town to stitch up a partnership with its Indian affiliate, the Swimming Federation of India, and start a high performance training centre. “India is an important country for World Aquatics and has the potential to become a strong nation in swimming,” Al Musallam said. “The Indian body is fully supportive of our initiative. The IOA president is also supportive of this plan and hopefully you can see a high performance training centre in India,” he added.