Gala closing ceremony to draw curtains
Source: The Sangai Express / Press Trust of India
Ranchi, February 25 2011:
The 34th edition of the National Games, which had a tumultuous build-up and a trouble-ridden tough 15 days of competition, is all set to conclude with a gala closing ceremony on Saturday.
Bollywood heartthrob Katrina Kaif and singer Shaan's performances will be the highlight of the four-hour long closing ceremony beginning 5 pm as the Jharkhand Olympic Association has lined up a host of traditional and cultural programmes of Manipur, Punjab and Kerala.
In the final segment of the ceremony, about 180 artists from Kerala, which is hosting the Games next year, will showcase their cultural and traditional heritage in a 12-minute segment.
The Kerala segment will be directed by national award winning filmmaker Shyama-prasad.
Sports minister Ajay Maken is yet to decide on whether to attend the closing ceremony as he is apparently uneasy to share platform with sacked Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi though the organisers said he will be present on Saturday.
Giving details of the ceremony, National Games Organising Committee's opening and closing ceremony sub-committee chairman NN Sinha said, "It will begin with the pre-show at 4.45 pm as the main programme will start after 5 pm" .
Fifty minutes' slot has been allotted to the formal part of the show.
"Katrina Kaif and Shaan will perform separately towards the end of the programme.
We have also called artists from the reality shows who will enthrall the crowd," he said.
"There will be programmes from Jharkhand and Manipur folk artists while from Punjab we will have bhangra.
A special song 'Vidaai' has been composed by folk artists and percussionists and that will form the theme of the state's cultural show," he said.
There will also be paika dance to celebrate the success of the Games.
The Manipur segment of the ceremony will include thang-ta, an ancient weapon-based martial art form of the Meiteis of Manipur.
The flag of the Indian Olympic Association will be handed over to the Kerala Organising Committee, to be led by Kerala Olympic Association president MM Abdul Rahiman and Kerala Sports Council president TP Dasan.
Weightlifting: Gurmeet Singh grabbed a gold in the men's 105kg event as Jharkhand continued to dominate, taking its tally to five gold, a silver and a bronze in the weightlifting competition of the 34th National Games at the Tata Auditorium on Friday.
Gurmeet lifted 303kg to clinch gold and was followed by Pardeep Singh of SSCB, who registered a lift of total 285kg.Abdul Arif Khan of Madhya Pradesh had to be content with a bronze for his lift of 275kg.Earlier, Jharkhand had won four gold medals including three by women lifters, a silver and a bronze (both in the women's section) .
SSCB with two gold, two silver and a bronze were in the second place while an impressive show by women lifters put Manipur in the third place with two gold, one silver and one bronze.
Maharashtra men had a gold and two silvers to their credit while Tamil Nadu had a gold, a bronze.
Wrestling: Haryana grapplers Amit Kumar, Vinod and Nirmla won the top honours medals in their respective categories to make it a golden dozen for Haryana in the three-day wrestling competition on Friday.
Haryana, which had won five gold medals yesterday and four on Wednesday, picked up the first of its three gold medals on the third and final day of the wrestling competition when Kumar overpowered SSCB's Pankaj Rana in the final of the men's 66kg weight freestyle category.
Manoj Kumar of Uttar Pradesh and Ranjeet Nalawade of Maharashtra returned with bronze medals as losing semifinalists.
Vinod added the second gold medal of the day for Haryana defeating Delhi's Sukhvinder in a closely-fought bout in the men's 55kg freestyle competition.
The SSCB's Narendra and UP's Subash settled for the bronze medals in this category.
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