Despite a delightful opening ceremony, the second day of the ongoing eighth Bangladesh Games received an unceremonious interruption when the events of taekwondo and table tennis could not be finished in time on Sunday due to load-shedding.
Electricity was disrupted several times at the National Sports Council gymnasium where the taekwondo event was taking place while load-shedding also reared its ugly head during the final of the table tennis event in both the men’s and women’s category at the Wooden Floor gymnasium in Paltan.
The table tennis finals were scheduled to be held at 3:30pm but the electricity supply was missing 30 minutes before the final and it returned at 4:20pm.
During this 80-minute break, the athletes were forced to leave the venue due to an intolerable temperature inside the gymnasium.
The same problem occurred at the taekwondo venue where the electricity supply was being interrupted frequently.
The back-up electricity system near the Games’ venues was not utilised properly. Officials of the Bangladesh Olympic Association, however, said that the generator was only brought for the opening ceremony whilst also blaming the relative federations for this trouble.
`The generator was only brought for the opening ceremony. The respective federations are responsible for this kind of trouble as it was not our responsibility.
‘Though, we will talk with the concerned authorities to ensure non-stop supply of electricity during the Games’ scheduled times,’ said Harunur Rashid, chairman of the Games’ steering committee.
-With New Age input