LAHORE, Oct 20: Two events of the Second Pakistan-India Punjab Games will be held from Dec 21-27 at Faisalabad and Islamabad. “Majority of the competitions will be held at Lahore while handball will be organised at Faisalabad and volleyball at Islamabad,” said Idris Haider Khawaja, secretary, Punjab Olympic Association (POA) said e on Thursday.

In all fifteen disciplines, men and women will be contested in the week-long event.

The Games were introduced last year to boost friendly ties between the two neighbouring countries and its first edition was held in December last at Patiala, India.

The events to be contested are athletics , men and women, badminton, men and women, cycling, men and women, basketball, boxing, football, gymnastic, handball, hockey, kabaddi, polo, rifle shooting, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling.

A strong contingent of nearly 280 athletes and officials participated in the Games held in India which is likely to field a bigger squad for the Games.

“The objective of holding these events, other than Lahore, is to spread the spirit of the Games to other cities and to introduce them to the maximum number of people,” he asserted.

Khawaja said efforts would be made to prepare the home athletes on solid lines to produce encouraging results in the Games.

“We will be facing tough challenge from Indian athletes in the Games and we should prepare our athletes knowing the importance of the event,” said the POA secretary.

POA official said on the directive of the Punjab Chief Minister the grant of the provincial associations has been doubled to help support the cause of sports in the province.

“Sports Board Punjab (BP) has allocated Rs 13.5 million grant for all the affiliated 30 associations,” he said adding “this step will go a long way in promoting games and producing good results in the Games.”

Khawaja said Punjab Government was taking keen interest in the development of the Games and the recent steps taken by the Punjab Chief Minister strengthened its pledge.

“It is going to be exciting Games and we will be making all out efforts to organise them in a trend setting manner,” he maintained.—APP