Lusofonia Games in Goa in November 2013

Panaji, March 31 (IANS) Organisers of the Lusofonia Games 2013 Saturday said the Portuguese version of the British Commonwealth Games would be held in Goa Nov 2-10, 2013.

After lambasting Goa government officials for sleeping over infrastructure creation for three years, the organizers have thrown down the gauntlet to the government of raising infrastructure for the games from scratch in 19 months.

"The Lusofonia games in Goa will be held from November 2-10. There will be nine sports disciplines which includes Atheltics, football, Wushu (an oriental martial art), judo, table tennis, taekwondo, etc," said Alex Vong Iao Sek, president of the Associacao dos Comites Olimpicos de Lingua Oficial Portuguesa (ACOLOP) or the Association of the Portuguese Speaking Olympic Committee.

The decision on the Game's dates was taken after the meeting of the ACOLOP assembly Saturday, a day inspection of prospective games sites had left the Game's delegation crestfallen.

"I saw nothing! I am surprised that we came last year and surprised that nothing has started and nothing is completed," a shocked ACOLOP secretary Mario Rosa de Almeida had said after the inspection Friday .

Addressing a press conference at a resort in Varca, 50 km from here Almeida however said that while the dates had been announced it was up to "Goa and Goans" to make the games a reality.

"We said yesterday that there was nothing which had happened. With the new government I hope things will improve. Now it all depends on Goa and Goans to make the games happen," Almeida said.

President of the Goa Olympic Association Shripad Naik assured the ACOLOP that the infrastructure would be raised in time for the Games in November next year.

Similar to the Commonwealth Games, which involves countries which were once colonially ruled by the British Empire, the Lusofonia games, a multi-sport event organised by the ACOLOP, which involves athletes coming from Lusophone or Portuguese-speaking nations, formerly ruled by Portugal.

Among the countries participating in the 2013 in Goa are Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macau (China), Mozambique, Portugal and Sao Tome and Principe. Equatorial Guinea, India and Sri Lanka are associate members of the Games.