January 30, 2015 8:48 PM

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National Games set to take off but star power missing <br/>

The 35th National Games will roll out in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala tomorrow. Multiple delays,continued teething troubles and the absence of big stars have robbed it of significant sheen but the Games would nonetheless be a huge platform for new talent to make a mark at the national level. The Games are now being held a good three years later than originally planned. The iconic Sachin Tendulkar being the Games Goodwill ambassador has added a fair bit of glamour to the event but the small bunch of big Olympic stars in the country, who would have added sheen and value to the competition, decided to give it a miss. Shuttle queen Saina Nehwal boxing&apos;spin-up boy Vijender Singh and top wrestlers Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt will be missing out. The shooting range, however, will have its fair share of celebrated names with Olympic medallists Gagan Narang and Vijay Kumar. The archery arena will also be quite star-studded with the Asian Games individual silver-medallist and team gold-medallist compound archer Abhishek Verma in fray for Delhi. But the boxing arena, which under ideal circumstances would have been a crowd-puller, is expected to be quite dull after most of the established pugilists decided to skip the event owing to the tug of war between the Indian Olympic Association and Boxing India.The IOA has refused to recognise the Boxing India.

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