Notun Kuri Sports draws over 1.6m young athletes for 2nd edition

He also announced that 40 promising athletes selected from the first edition would be admitted permanently to the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP) in January.

According to the state minister, the second edition will be organised across 4,599 unions, with 1,623,968 registered participants. Of them, 944,833 are boys and 689,135 are girls.

The competition will feature 10 sporting disciplines, up from eight in the first edition, with volleyball and table tennis added this year.

Around 168,000 children and teenagers took part in the inaugural edition, from which 310 were selected for training at BKSP. Following the training programme, 40 athletes—28 girls and 12 boys—have been selected for permanent admission. The government will bear all their educational and sporting expenses from January.

The government is also planning to expand training facilities for talented athletes emerging from the second edition. Aminul said BKSP facilities at divisional and district levels would be fully operational by December, allowing selected athletes to receive training in their respective regions.

After competitions at union, upazila, district and divisional levels, the government aims to hold the national-level events in Dhaka by May-June next year.

The state minister said preparations for the third edition would begin immediately after the second edition concludes.