36th National Games to be held in Goa in October-November 2020, confirms Indian Olympic Association

New Delhi: The much-delayed 36th National Games will be staged in Goa from 20 October to 4 November next year, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) said on Saturday. The IOA finalised the dates during its meeting with the Goan delegation here on Saturday. [caption id=“attachment_4776661” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative photo. Image credit: Twitter/@ioaindia[/caption] “It was finalised in a meeting here today and the National Games will be held in October-November next year. The Goan officials have promised that they will have all the facilities and infrastructure ready this time,” IOA secretary-general Rajeev Mehta told PTI. The meeting was attended by IOA top brass and delegation from Goa, including Sports Minister Babu Azgaonkar, Sports Secretary J Ashok Kumar, VM Prabhudesai, Krishnamurthy and Engineer Anil Ringne. Non-completion of the requisite infrastructure in Goa has been one of the reasons behind the multiple delays in hosting the Games, the last edition of which was held in Jharkhand in 2011. However, Engineer Ringne on Saturday assured that the infrastructure work will be completed well in time. Goa was earlier supposed to host the 36th edition of the National Games in November last year. However, the state later set aside dates for the event from 30 March to 14 April this year, but then expressed its inability to host the Games during that period owing to the general elections. The IOA in April had asked Goa to pay a penalty of Rs 10 crore for repeatedly postponing the National Games. However, the state government urged the IOA to write off the penalty, assuring that there would be no further delay in organising the Games.