Commonwealth Youth Games Pune 2008

III Commonwealth Youth Games Pune 2008

   

                        

                   

                   

The 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games were held in Pune, India. They were the third Commonwealth Youth Games, which are held every four years,  they were the first Commonwealth Youth Games to be held in Asia.

The III Commonwealth Youth Games were conducted from 12th to 18 October 2008. Over 1,300 athletes and 350 officials from 71 countries participated in these games.

The III Commonwealth Youth Games is unique for its green theme, which permeates all aspects of the Games. A special drive is being conducted by the game organisers to create a "save the tigers" campaign to promote awareness of the critical state of the Indian tiger. 

Sports

There were nine sports on the programme for the 2008 CYG.

Each sport has a unique pictogram to represent it. The pictograms are designed to be, like the 2008 CYG logo, a balance between the cultural heritage of India and the modern India. The pictograms have been derived from the tribal art form of Warli. 

• Athletics
• Badminton
• Boxing
• Shooting
• Swimming
• Table Tennis
• Tennis
• Weightlifting
• Wrestling  

Mascot

The name of the official mascot of the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games is "Jigrr". The mascot is a tiger, the national animal of India. Jigrr is the younger brother of 'Shera', the mascot of 2010 Commonwealth Games. Jigrr the name, is an amalgam of the word "Jigar", which implies courage in Hindi language and also the sound of tiger roar 'grrr...'

The “Chalo Jigrr ke Saath – Get Set, Go” event was held on 11th October 2007 at the College of Engineering Grounds, Shivajinagar, Pune at 5.30 pm and was launched by the Chief Guest Mr. Michael Fennell, President, Commonwealth Games Federation in the presence of Mrs. Rajlaxmi Bhosale, Hon’ble, Mayor of Pune, Mr Harshavardhan Patil, Minister for Marketing, Govt. of Maharashtra, Sports icons who have done the country proud namely, Mr. Samaresh Jung, Ms. Anjali Bhagwat, Mr. Dhanraj Pillay and Ms. Tejaswini Savant to name a few.

The event was kick started by the flag off, of the 2-wheeler rally of approximately 5000 youth of the city. It started from 10 different spots in the city and converged at the College of Engineering grounds just before the event.