Lusofonia Games to be held from Jan 18 to 29

The Lusofonia Games, postponed once due to delay in infrastructure construction, will be held from January 18 to 29 in Goa featuring 12 countries which would compete in nine sporting disciplines.
Considered the Commonwealth Games of the Portuguese nations, the event will feature athletics, basketball, beach volleyball, football, judo, table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball and wushu.
Lusofonia Games Organising Committee recently launched the official Games web portal www.Lusofoniagames2014.Gov.In at the state secretariat.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar along with Sports Minister Ramesh Tawadkar launched the official Games web portal.
The Games not only involve athletes coming from Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) countries, those belonging to the CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries), but also others where there are significant Portuguese communities or those which have a common past with Portugal.

In 2009, the Government of Goa made a bid to ACOLOP to host the third edition of the Lusofonia Games. Brazil and Sri Lanka also put in bids to stage the event. The ACOLOP approved the bid for Goa.
The 12 participating countries are Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Macau (China), Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe, Sri Lanka and the host nation Goa (India).
The Games will be held over the period of 12 days from and will see participation from over 1500 athletes and officials.