BANGALORE, May 30: The oft-postponed Fourth National Games will get under way here tomorrow with a colourful and hitech opening ceremony that will rekindle the spirit of Olympics in the country.

The Games, which was originally scheduled to be held in January-February last year, had to be postponed mainly due to delay in completion of the infrastructural facilities here and Mysore. Though all the venues had not not been completed, the organisers insist that the playing areas are match-fit.

More than 10,000 competitors and officials would be seen in action in Bangalore and Mysore vying for top honours in 26 disciplines in the next two weeks. Besides, five demonstaration games including tennikoit, ball badminton, billiards and snooker and golf.

The Games open with the threat of monsoon showers looming large. Monsoon normally hits the state in the first or second week of June. The city had already received a sprinke of rains during the last few days.

The Karnataka government has spent Rs 130 crores on the games, including infrastructure development. It included creation of two new indoor stadia, renovation of the Kanteerava Stadium the main venue which now has floodlights in the city and an indoor stadium and outdoor stadium at Mysore. Besides facilities at various stadia had been upgraded. A new shooting range had also been created at the Sports Authority of India (SAI), south centre here.

The games had been dubbed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) as the largest compared to three previous editions held in Delhi (1985), Kerala (1987) and Pune/Bombay (1994).

The palace city of Mysore would host six events -- gymnastics, table tennis, equestrian, handball, wrestling and archery -- while the remaining 20 events would be held in the city. The events are athletics, basketball, badminton, boxing, canoeing and kayaking, cycling (road races only as the other events had been shifted to Ludhiana due to lack of velodrome here), fencing, football, hockey, judo, kabaddi, kho kho, rowing, shooting, swimming and diving and waterpolo, takewando, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, and weightlifting.

Besides building of new stadia and the renovation of the Kanteerava Stadium, the football and hockey stadiums have also been given a facelift. Hockey also got the much needed polygrass.

Despite all shortcomings, the games is emerging a high-tech one as modern gadets play a pivotal role for its successful conduct.

Installation of an electronic giant board, total computerisation of the games by CMC, use of amateur radio services (hams) cellular telephones by top brass of the games to be in continuous contact and the grand finale of the opening ceremony provided by a 14 minute laser show definitely indicate that electronic gizzmos have started playing modern time games.

The next 12 days will see all top notch players of the country representing their respective states vying with each other for the top honours either in individual or team events. To name these players would be a tall order as all the who's who in the Indian sports scene today would be here to give out their best although performances in the games compared to National championships had always been a shade lower. However what stands out most was the unity and national integration the games project.

About 27 states and Services will participate in the games. Services would be taking part for the first time.

Games-torch: Five times national marathon champion Biradar of Karnataka will have the honours of torching the flame of the games which will open here tomorrow.

The last lap of the games torch would be carried by celebrated stars from the state -- Kenneth Powell, Nirmala Ponnappa, Ashwini Nachappa, Irene Mascarenas and former sprinter Sunder Raj Shetty.

The games torch which was flagged off from Basavakalyan on May 19 would reach the city this evening after covering a distance of over 900 km and touching all the districts of the state.

Opening ceremony: The opening ceremony of the games tomorrow would offer a rich cultural heritage of Karnataka to viewers across the nation besides depicting an electronic marvel through a 15-minute laser show.

The event would begin with the release of two hot air baloons belonging to the Indian Air Force at 1600 hrs, this would be followed by an impressive sky diving programme by an Indian Air Force team. They would drop from a height of 8,000 ft.

The skying diving team would hand over to the authorities the IOA flag that would be hoisted later at the Kanteerava Stadium.

The ceremonial marchpast of the state teams would start soon after the arrival of President Shankar Dayal Sharma at the venue.

The national tricolour and the flags of International Olympic Committee, IOA, the Olympic committee of Asia, IOA, Karnataka Olympic Association would be hoisted at 1730 hrs and this would be followed by showering of flowers from helicopters.

The theme song of the games sung by Kannada matinee idol Raj Kumar would herald the arrival of the torch for lighting the Olympic flame by five times marathon champion Biradar. This would be followed by the arrival of the games mascot Nandu, derived from Nandi (bull) which would make a frolicking lap.

This would be followed by address by dignitaries including the President after which Dr Sharma would declare the Games open.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.