New sporting event to debut in October

The first edition of the “Jogos Desportivos Populares de Macau” (Popular Sport Games) will take place on October 18 – 19 at the sport stadium and the swimming pavilion of the Olympic Sports Centre.
The event is being organized by the Sport Development Board and co-organized by the Athletic Association of Macau and the Swimming Association of Macau.
All Macau residents aged six and above can take part in the event, except for those who have already placed in the top three in certain competitions designated by organizers. Competitions for the handicapped will also be held.  The two sports are swimming and track and field. Registration starts today. A budget of MOP5million is allocated for the event.
The president of the Macao Sport Development Board, José Tavares, said the 500-participant event is being run as a pilot test and he believes there’s room for expansion. If residents actively participate in the event, Tavares believes that the organizer will consider extending the length of the sport meeting.
Speaking on the sidelines of the press conference yesterday, Tavares said that the University of Macau (UM) sport pavilion in Taipa will be added to the “public sports facilities network”, managed by the Sport Development Board, and might undergo some minor reconstruction work. But the authorities said that the expected timetable of the pavilion takeover is not available at the moment.
The government declared earlier that the sport pavilion of UM’s campus in Taipa would be under the sport institute’s management.
Given the current lack of a sport pavilion in Macau, he said that the reconstruction on UM’s pavilion would not start before construction is completed on the Mong Ha sport pavilion and the pavilion is reopened to the public.
The Mong Ha sport pavilion has been under reconstruction for more than two years, and Tavares said that according to the construction department the project would be completed in 2018. “UM’s sport pavilion after reconstruction will be similar to Mong Ha’s,” he revealed.

Grace Yu