South Asian Games to be held in Pakistan in Jan 2026

LAHORE: The much-delayed 14th South Asian Games will kick off in Pakistan in January next year, the South Asian National Olympic Committee announced on Tuesday.

The games — which were supposed to be held in 2021 but were postponed due to COVID-19 — will be staged in Lahore, Faisalabad, and Islamabad from Jan 23 to 31.

The decision was taken during the meeting, chaired by the South Asian Olympic Committee and Pakistan Olympic Association president Arif Saeed, and was attended by the representatives of other SAARC member states.

Moreover, it was also announced that the events for each sport will also be decided before March 31 and the technical handbooks will be prepared and released subject to approval of the Asian Federations concerned.

It was also decided to form the South Asian Olympic Committee Constitution Review Committee to align its constitution with the Olympic Council of Asia.

As many as 27 different disciplines were approved in the meeting for the Games. These include:

Swimming (men and women), archery (men and women), athletics (men and women), badminton (men and women), billiards and snooker (Men), boxing (men and women), fencing (men and women), golf (men and women), judo (men and women), karate (men and women), shooting (men and women), squash (men and women), table tennis (men and women), taekwondo (men and women), tennis (men and women), triathlon (men and women), weightlifting (men and women), wrestling (men and women), wushu (men and women), basketball 3×3 and 5×5 (men and women), cricket (men and women), football (men and women), handball (men and women) and beach handball (Men), hockey (Men), mat kabaddi (men and women), rugby (Men), volleyball (men and women) and beach volleyball (Men) and Rowing.