A total of 462 sportsmen, including 199 women, 133 team officials and 26 contingent officials, will take part in 25 disciplines of sports, out of total 27 sports.
Swimmer Mahfuza Khatun Shila, who won two gold medals in the 12th SA Games in Guwahati, India held in 2016, will bear the national flag of Bangladesh in the opening ceremony of the ensuing SA Games.
Secretary General of Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) Syed Shahed Reza disclosed the details of their preparations and expectations from the meet at a press conference at the Dutch Bangla auditorium BOA here on Saturday.
BOA Vice-President Sheikh Bashir Ahmed (Mamun), Chef de Mission of Bangladesh contingent and BOA Deputy Secretary General Asaduzzaman Kohinoor, Treasurer Kazi Rajib Uddin Ahmed Chapol, member AK Sarker, Deputy Chef de Mission M Omar Faruque and Syeda Jannat Ara SP were also present on the occasion.
“We’re expecting a better outcome from the upcoming meet than previous edition. We hope that Bangladesh will have good chances in archery, shooting, cricket, football, judo, karate and wushu,” Shahed said.
“Our sportsmen (except football and cricket teams) made intensive trainings under BOA from July 15.We also sent some of our athletes abroad for better trainings,” he added.
They submitted a budget of Tk 30 crore -- Tk 19.5 crore for training purposes and Tk 10 crore for the participation – but they got only Tk 15 crore till date, the BOA secretary general said.
The first batch, headed by Chef de Mission of Bangladesh contingent and BOA Deputy Secretary General Asaduzzaman Kohinoor, will leave Dhaka for Kathmandu on Sunday.
Bangladesh Volleyball team will be the first to fly for Nepal Monday (Nov 25) to compete in the meet beginning on Wednesday (Nov 27) while Bangladesh Judo team will be last to leave here for Nepal on December 6.
Bangladesh Women’s Cricket team will leave here for the Nepalese town of Pokhara on November 29 while men’s cricket team will fly for Kathmandu on December 1.
In the last SA Games in India in 2016, Bangladesh clinched four gold, 15 silver and 56 bronze medals with swimmer Shila winning two gold medals and shooter Shakil Ahmed and lifter Mabia Akhter one each.