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Youth Games set for colourful opening

Sports Reporter
The curtain on the inaugural Bangladesh Youth Games will lift today through a colourful ceremony at the
Bangabandhu National Stadium as the budding athletes from across the country have lined up in the capital to demonstrate their ability after making it through to the grassroots level.
Country's premier venue has taken a new look ahead of today's opening ceremony as the sports regulatory body has taken initiatives to give a facelift to the multi-purpose venue, which had earlier hosted the opening ceremonies of 2010 South Asian Games, 2011 ICC World Cup and 2013 Bangladesh Games.
The galleries were painted after removing some useless chairs in a bid to making seating arrangements for general spectators, who can watch the ceremony without any entry fee as some gates of the stadium will open at 4:00pm. Though it is not clear how many general spectators will be allowed inside the big bowl, it is
believed that there will be very little opportunity as the main stage has been set up near the middle of the football pitch, which might see the galleries at the northern part vacant.
The ceremony will be telecast live by state-owned Bangladesh Television and private satellite channel MaasrangaTelevision.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will declare the seven-day games officially open at 7:10pm even though programmes will start in the afternoon through DJ show followed by citing of national anthem and hoisting of the national flag. There will be an audiovisual show of the youth games at district and divisional phases, march past of participating eight divisions, speech by guests and official declaration by the Prime Minister.
Afterwards, Manchester Commonwealth Games gold medallist Asif Hossain Khan will ignite the torch and the theme song of the games will be sung. Later, artists and singers will perform a stage show before a 25-minute display with participation of different artists will exhibit the past,
present and future of Bangladesh. Finally a laser show and fireworks will take place towards the end of the nearly two-hour programme.
Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) is spending one-fourth of the total budget of Tk 20 crore for the gala opening ceremony. However, such expenditure for a domestic multidiscipline sporting event is nothing new for the BOA, which had previously spent Tk 8 crore for the opening ceremony of the 8th Bangladesh Games in 2013.
"As the Youth Games is first of its kind, we want to inspire talented athletes by hosting a colourful opening ceremony in which participating athletes will stay inside the ground to remain involved with the event directly. Besides, we believe the ceremony will inspire other athletes to take part in the Youth Games in future," said BOA vice president and Youth Games' media committee chairman Sheikh Bashir Ahmed.
Some 2660 athletes from 21 disciplines will compete in 159 events during the final phase of the games.