Luang Prabang prepares for the 9th National Games

VIENTIANE MACH 5 (KPL) - Luang Prabang is preparing for the 9th National Games scheduled for December 2011. The main stadium of the province has been renovated completely and the construction of other facilities is underway.
The province is allocating venues to be used for the games. Twenty-three roads are also under improvement as well as other basic facilities such as water supply systems and electricity.
Last year, the Lao National Sports Committee undertook major renovations on the main stadium which now has 80,000 seats. This year they want to build seven more competition venues.
Head of the Provincial Sports Service, Mr Chandy Bounnhong, said that they were asking the government to provide more than 138 billion kip for constructing new facilities and improving the existing ones.
The construction of the additional sport fields has already started and in general around 30 per cent of the work is carried out. Mr Chandy said contractors will use their own resources to build the venues and the government will repay them later.
The new competition venues to be built and are being built include the stadiums for basketball, petanque, tennis, volleyball and beach volleyball, swimming pool and shooting range.
There are twenty-one sports to be competed at the 9th National Games namely petanque, basketball, football, sepak takraw, volleyball and beach volleyball, muay Lao, boxing, badminton, cycling, swimming, taekwondo, table tennis, golf, shooting, bowling, judo, karatedo, top spinning, crossbow, pencak silat, and track-and-field event.
The Luang Prabang provincial Sports Service is asking six districts to host selection competitions for the games of football, petanque, taekwondo, badminton, top spinning and crossbow.
Mr Chandy said they needed funding for athlete preparation and training as well as administration of the games.
Luang Prabang province has hosted the National Games twice so far, 1996 and 2007.