Director General (DG), Youth Services and Sports, Rajinder Singh Tara, Friday declared open the 68th National School Games in Wushu U-17 Boys and Girls in a well-attended function at Indoor Complex Bhagwati Nagar.
The event is part of the month long series of National School Games in the disciplines of Judo, Fencing, Wushu and Football.
The programme began with the National Anthem which was followed by lighting of the ceremonial lamp by the Director General Youth Services and Sports along with Joint Director Youth Services and Sports Jammu, Ved Prakash; Deputy Director Youth Services and Sports Central, Jitendra Mishra; Chief Wushu Coach of India and Dronacharya Awardee, Kuldeep Handoo; District Youth Services and Sports Officers and Conveners of various committees namely Sukhdev Raj Sharma, Jaffar Hussain and Harvinder Kaur.
March Past by the athletes and the officials, besides Wushu demonstrations added colour to the programme.
21 State/UT teams are taking part in this sporting extravaganza including Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigar, CBSE WSO, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Vidhya Bharathi and West Bengal.
Meanwhile, speaking on the occasion, Rajinder Singh Tara advised the participating players to preserve the sanctity and spirit of sports, give their best to vie for the top honours, setting a benchmark. He asked the officials to show resilience and perseverance in dealing with the people of different tastes.
On the occasion, Kuldeep Handoo, the only Dronacharya Awardee from Jammu and Kashmir and iconic Wushu Player Surya Bhanu Pratap Singh were felicitated by the organisers for their outstanding contribution in the field of sports.
Later, Joint Director Youth Services and Sports Jammu chaired a meeting of Managers and Coaches for smooth and successful conduct of the event. Weigh-in and Draw of Lots were held today and the bouts will begin at the same venue tomorrow.