Khelo India Youth Games 2023: Technical officials flounder basics in 'brand new' accommodation

The lack of necessary establishments in a "brand new" hotel, where the table tennis technical officials are being accommodated, has come into the limelight on the opening day of the event in the fifth Khelo India Youth Games, taking place in Indore. The tournament administrators were astounded to discover that the hotel they were being put up in was inaugurated on the day of their arrival, i.e. Saturday.

"The company [a leading travel company] responsible for booking the hotel for the officials was probably unaware the facility was not yet ready for use. Some rooms have no chairs and tables, while others have no mirrors. Most of the officials are 50 plus and have a hard time staying in the hotel. Two female staff decided to stay in the competition venue after seeing the state of affairs in the hotel," a source informed PTI on Monday.

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Madhya Pradesh is hosting the central government-backed multi-sporting competition across nine cities -- Bhopal, Gwalior, Ujjain, Jabalpur, Mandla, Balaghat, Khargone (Maheshwar) and Indore to organiser 27 domains. The table tennis event is at the Abhay Prashal Indoor Stadium in Indore, with 31 competitors partaking in the U-19 category.

Among other logistical problems faced by the tournament, a few players grumbled about needing to get their liveries on time. "A couple of Karnataka players approached the technical officials over the delay in getting playing kits, but a system error showed they had already received it. The officials then sorted the issue out," the source added. Fifteen boys and 16 girls are participating in the competition, with Suhana Saini from Haryana and Ankur Bhattacharjee from West Bengal among the favourites to succeed in the singles titles.

(With inputs from PTI)

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