'Infrastructure for Lusofonia Games a race against time'

Four sporting venues are ready, but the construction of a fifth, an indoor sports complex, is going to be a race against time, Keshav Chandra chief executive officer of the Lusofonia Games 2013 said Friday.

Chandra who was addressing a press conference at the Games camp here, on the outskirts of the capital, also said that 1089 athletes and officials from 12 participating countries had already confirmed their participation.

"Four of the venues will be ready in time. We are working 24 hours to make sure the fifth venue, the Bambolim indoor complex will be up in time. It seems difficult, but we are hopeful," Chandra said, adding that a severe monsoon had made outdoor construction work difficult.

The official also did not rule out postponement of the Games due to a delay in getting the infrastructure in order.

The Lusofonia Games are a Portuguese equivalent of the British Commonwealth Games and are scheduled to be held in Goa in November, if all the infrastructure which includes indoor stadiums, track and field facilities as well as other sports-related apparatus, is constructed and put in place in time.

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.

Gurudutt Bhakta Secretary of the Goa Olympic Association, which is partnering the state government in organising the Games, said that Goa would also requisition star players from across India, who will compete with the visiting athletes.

"We will be getting players from other parts of India, who will be representing the state as well as India at the Games," Bhakta said.

Goa was one of the earliest Portuguese colonies in Asia and was under the Luso colonial yoke for nearly 450 years.