KARACHI, June 13 The medals race for Moenjodaro Trophy begins with the commencement of three-day 13th Sindh Games at various venues of the city on Monday with over 2,000 athletes vying for honours in record 36 disciplines for men and 17 for women.

Though competitions in different disciplines starts Monday morning, the formal opening ceremony will be held at the PSB Coaching Centre in the evening. Sindh Home Minister, Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, will formally declare the spectacle open at 6.00pm. He will also take salute of the five regional contingents - Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur, Larkana and the host Karachi.

The opening will be preceded by a torch relay which starts its journey from mausoleum of Father of the Nation, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and culminate at the venue for the opening ceremony.

The theme of this year's games is 'tolerance' while the slogan reads 'sports breed happiness'.

If statistics is a barometer, the hosts are tipped to dominate the regional Olympics and maintain their winning sequence. However, their superiority has been time and again challenged in couple of disciplines by athletes of rural areas despite lack of proper facilities.

Figures show that Karachi fetched 78-34-26 medals to win Moenjodaro Trophy for twelfth time in succession at the last Larkana Games. Hyderabad stood second with a tally of 23-47-39 medals while Sukkur was placed third with 20-19-42 medals.

Larkana, where the Games were instituted in 1986, had to be content with fourth slot with 12-24-36 medals while Mirpurkhas finished at the bottom securing 7-15-26 medals.

Karachi athletes had to bite the dust when they returned gold-less in the men's track and field events at Larkana. The Karachi sportspersons also suffered severe shock in men's badminton, hockey and tennis, to name few.

Meanwhile, all the four outstation contingents who arrived here by Sunday noon took part in full dress rehearsal held at the PSB Coaching Centre in the evening.

The Games concludes on Wednesday with closing ceremony slated at the Asghar Ali Shah Stadium.

Disciplines

Men's Athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, bodybuilding, boxing, bridge, chess, cycling, fishing, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, kabaddi, karate, kodi kodi, Malh, muaythai, netball, rowing, shooting ball, softball, squash, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, throw ball, tug of war, volleyball, wanjhwatti, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.

Women's Athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, football, handball, hockey, judo, karate, netball, softball, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, throw ball, volleyball and wushu.