AGARTALA, March 9 (TIWN): The participant’s team from Tripura in the North East games brought laurels to the state making the state famous in the field of sports.

Welcoming the participant’s team of 172 people in Tripura at Sports council field on Wednesday, Sports Minister Shahid Chowdhury said that, this competition is indeed unique as well as attractive because it showcases the best talent and performance of the region. The talented sports persons from this region have done India proud by earning laurels in the National and International events including Olympics.

Applauding the participants from Tripura in the North East games 2016, Minister said that the performance needs to be improved more so that they can grab the first position in the games and make Tripura more proud.

With 84 medals claimed the Overall Team Championship, while Mizoram and Tripura claimed the 1st Runners Up and 2nd Runners Up. Claiming the position of second runner up, Tripura bagged 9 gold medal, 5 silvers, and 7 bronze.  However, Tripura mainly gave outstanding performance in Athletics.

The 6 days-long national level North East Games, 2016 was concluded successfully on Monday at Khuman Lampak Sport Complex in Imphal.

The National Level North East Games under Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan (RGKA) was previously known as North East Sports Festival. So far, 28 games of this event was held in different states of North East India.  The current edition of the North East Games, 2016 has started from 2nd March, 2016. Altogether 920 players and 100 officials from 8 North-eastern states are participating in the Games in eight sports disciplines namely Athletics, Badminton, Boxing, Football, Hockey, Judo, Table Tennis and Weightlifting.

The main focus for hosting of such mega sports event is to expose the performance and potential of different players of the North Eastern Region of the country.

This event will certainly motivate younger generation to come forward at different levels of games and sports and this competition will help strengthen integration amongst the players of the North Eastern Region and the country as a whole,” said the Minister.