The Walton Air Conditioner National (U-19) Youth Female Handball Tournament begins today (Wednesday) at the Shaheed (Captain) M Mansur Ali National Handball Stadium.
State Minister for Youth and Sports Biren Sikder will formally open the handball meet as the chief guest.
Bangladesh Handball Federation will arrange the handball competition with the financial assistance of Walton.
Regarding the handball competition, a press conference was held at the conference room of the Bangabandhu National Stadium on Tuesday. Additional Director of Walton FM Iqbal Bin Anwar Dawn, General Secretary of Bangladesh Handball Federation Asaduzzaman Kohinoor, Assistant Director of Walton Mazharul Islam, Chairman of the Tournament Committee Abdul Hakim, Sports Ambassador of Walton Jobera Rahman Linu, Secretary of the Tournament Committee Md Nurul Islam spoke at the conference.
A total of 18 teams splitting into six groups are taking part in the first phase of the handball meet. The matches of the first phase will be held at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Indoor Stadium in Mirpur and Shaheed (Captain) M Mansur Ali National Handball Stadium.
Panchgarh, Madaripur, Magura are in Group A, Faridpur, Joypurhat, Jamalpur are in Group B, BJMC, Dinajpur, Shariatpur are in Group C, Dhaka, Rangamati, Noagaon are in Group D, Mymensingh, Kushtia, Barisal are in Group E, Rajshahi, Jessore, Feni are in Group F.
The budget of the tournament has been estimated at Tk 8,90, 000 while Walton has given Tk 5,00,000 to Bangladesh Handball Federation while the Federation will bear rest of the expenditure from its own fund.
The champions will be awarded Tk 35,000, the runners-up will be given Tk 25,000, the third-place achiever will get Tk 20,000 and the fourth-place winner will be given Tk 15,000.
The seven-day long handball competition will come to an end on August 26.
