Mandla, 02 February : The Khelo India Youth Games 2023 started in Madhya Pradesh on January 30. Under this, the sports festival is going to start in Mandla today (Thursday). Competitions of the Punjabi game Gatka will be held here from February 2 to 4, while the Thangta competition of the North-East region will be organized from February 8 to 10.
According to the schedule, the opening ceremony of the competitions to be held in Mandla under the Khelo India Youth Games will be held at 10 am on Thursday. After this, the women’s category matches will start at 11:30 am and will continue at 1:30 pm. After this, there will be a lunch break from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm. Women’s and men’s category competitions will be held from 2:30 pm. The events of the first day will end at 5 pm.
The qualifier rounds will start the next day on February 3, under which matches will be held in the men’s and women’s categories. On this day till 4:30 pm, there will be matches of different levels of women’s and men’s categories, while the semi-final rounds will start at 10 am on February 4. The final rounds will start at 12:30 PM. There will be a prize distribution program after the lunch break.
Under the Khelo India Youth Games, competitions of Punjabi traditional self-defence style ‘Gatka’ will be held in Mandla from today. This is mainly the traditional fighting and self-defence style of the Sikhs. The Punjab government has accorded sports recognition to the traditional martial art of Gatka. At present, in the religious festivals of Sikhism, this art is performed through weapon operation. The International Gatka Federation was established in 1982 and formally established in 1987.
District Panchayat CEO Rani Batad said that under the Khelo India Youth Games 2022, Mandla has got hosting two games Gatka and Thangta. There will be ‘Gatka’ competitions from February 2 to 4 and ‘Thangta’ competitions from February 8 to 10. He informed me that around 256 players would show their sporting talents in both competitions.
Representative of the Government of India Baljit Singh gave detailed information about the traditional Punjabi game ‘Gatka’. He told that the Gatka game is a self-defence method. Around 128 players from 20 states are participating in the ‘Gatka’ event at Mandla. Similarly, 128 players from 21 states will participate in Manipur’s traditional game Thangata.
