PRESS RELEASE

Mumbai Sept 4, 2004: 
                              The stage is set for one of the biggest athletics extravaganzas to visit the shores of Mumbai in recent times. Six hundred of the country’s top athletes, including 12 from the squad that participated in the Athens Olympics will converge at the Priyadarshini Park for the Standard Chartered Open National Athletics Championship 2004, hosted by the Bombay City District Amateur Athletic Association, under the aegis of the Athletics Federation of India, from September 10 to 12.

While welcoming the media to this Press Conference, The Secretary of the Organising Committee Mr. Adille Sumariwalla, also take the opportunity to thank Standard Chartered, who have reiterated their support to athletics by coming in as Title Sponsors, and Mid-Day, Ryan International Sportsclub and Reliance, who have magnanimously agreed to lend their support to the 44^th edition of these championships as Platinum Sponsors. Heartfelt gratitude is also expressed to the Associate Sponsors, Go 92.5 FM, Orange and Doordarshan.

Exciting fare is in store for athletics fans on the three days of competition as only those athletes who have met or bettered the qualifying marks set for the different disciplines will be witnessed in competition.

Among the current Olympians who will be on show are names like J J Shobha, Soma Biswas (heptathlon), Seema Anthil, Neelam Singh, Harwant Kaur (discus), Saraswati Saha (200m), K M Beenamol, Chitra Soman, Rajwinder Kaur, Manjeet Kaur, S Geetha (4x400m relay) and Bahadur Singh. While some of the above named athletes came up with their personal best efforts, the ones that missed out on the opportunity to shine at the biggest stage will be looking to set the record straight with strong performances at the Standard Chartered Open National Championship.

Prize Money of Rupees Fifty Thousand will be given to any athlete who creates a New Asian Record, and Prize Money of Rupees Twenty Thousand will be given to any athlete who creates a New National Record in any of the events, except for Women Pole Vault and Women 3000 mtrs Steeplechase as both these events are recently introduced.

Keeping with the stature of the event, eighteen states will be represented at these championships, while entries have also come in from six sports boards, among those, Services Sports Control Board, LIC, Railways Sports Promotion Board, All India Police, Steel Plants Sports Board and Coal India.

Competition over the three days will be held in two sessions, beginning on the first at 8.00 am and finishing at 10.30 am. The official Opening Ceremony will be held at 2.00 pm on the opening day with the second session beginning at 2.30 pm and ending at 5.00 pm.

The second day’s activities begin at 6.30 am, the first session ending at 11.30 am, followed by the second session from 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm. The concluding day will also see the first session beginning at 6.30 am and ending at 11.00 am, followed by the last session from 2.00 pm to 4.30 pm, followed by the Closing Ceremony.

Television plays a major role in popularizing any sport and the Standard Chartered Open National Athletics Championship 2004 will be beamed live to every household in the country, thanks to Doordarshan, who will telecast live proceedings on all the three days of competition between 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm.

Live results of the championships will be available on the Bombay Athletics web site. ( www.bcdaaa.org)

 The competition director will be Mr. Satish Uchil of Mumbai, while the AFI organizational delegate will be M L Dogra and the technical delegates are M C Ghosh (WB) Kripal Singh (UP) and Sunny Joshua (Delhi). The Meet Manager will be R H Shetty (Jt. Hon Sec, BCDAAA), while Adille Sumariwalla will be the Organising Secretary.