Participation in Lusofonia Games same as before say organisers

Panaji: A day after blaming rescheduling for poor response to the ongoing Lusofonia games, the organisers on Monday said the participation was quite close to the one during the last two editions of the Portuguese Commonwealth Games.

"Compared to the earlier edition of the event, the participation in Goa is at the same level, if not above," ACOLOP general secretary Mario Rosa told reporters here. He said the distance to Goa (India) might have kept some participating teams away, but the response is not less than the previous editions held at Macau and Portugal. The shifting of the games from November last year to January this year resulted in "less response for the event by the member nations," Alex Wong, the president of ACOLOP (an Association of the Portuguese Speaking Olympic Committees), had said yesterday. The ACOLOP has Portuguese-speaking Lusophone countries as its members. While more than 1,000 players were expected to participate in the event, but only 700 representing 12 nations have turned up. Brazil has representation only in one sport discipline wushu. Rosa said the Brazil football team never participated in Lusofonia games. On other nations skipping the much awaited football matches, he said, "International football calendar was clashing with the event." "The Games are not only about football," he said.