Championships will be held at Delhi’s Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Swimming Pool Complex from February 6th to February 9th, 2024
New Delhi: Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Shri Sports Anurag Singh Thakur kicked off the BIMSTEC Aquatics Championships 2024 today in New Delhi.
The BIMSTEC Aquatics Championships is being held for the first time.
On the occasion, Anurag Singh Thakur said that the “World’s 25% population lives in South Asia and Southeast Asian region.
He further added that with the coming together of 7 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.
The Union Minister added that this will help not only deeper friendships but also build a deeper sporting culture which will help deepen even friendship between athletes and that is exactly the thought that our honourable Prime Minister envisioned when he announced this sporting event at the summit in Nepal.
The organization for the very first time in history is hosting a sports competition which is being hosted in India. The announcement for the same was made by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi during the 4th BIMSTEC Summit in 2018, where he announced the organising of the BIMSTEC Youth Water Sports competition in India. The event was initially proposed for the year 2021, however, it was later postponed to 2024 due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world.
Along with the Union Sports Minister, the opening ceremony was also attended by the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Nepal Dig Bahadur Limbu and Indra Mani Pandey, Secretary General, BIMSTEC High Commissioners & Ambassadors to India of BIMSTEC among dignitaries from visiting countries and the government of India.
The 1st BIMSTEC Aquatics Championships is being held at Delhi’s Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Swimming Pool Complex from 6th February to 9th February 2024 with competitions being held for Under 20 age category in Swimming, Water Polo and Diving events.
A total of 39 medals will be given out across three sporting events along with a total of 9 trophies that will be at stake. Over 500 personnel are expected at the events, including 268 athletes 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 Southeast Asian countries with five members from South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka) and two members from Southeast Asia (Myanmar & Thailand).
