there will be indoor soccer and basketball competitions

In the last few hours, the Bogotá Mayor’s Office launched the second edition of the night tournaments, which this year will have two sports: indoor soccer and 3×3 basketball. Thanks to this initiative, the District Recreation and Sports Institute (IDRD) and the Government Secretariat seek to promote healthy competition, as well as encourage the appropriation of public space through sports and recreation, by providing friends, family and neighbors with the opportunity to enjoy the parks.

“We are happy to be able to contribute to the integration of families, friends and neighbors through sports and healthy coexistence. With the development of the night tournaments we want to give new meaning to the fields of the city’s proximity parks and benefit the population that lives and works near them”said Blanca Durán, director of the IDRD.

For the Secretary of Government, Felipe Jiménez, “the night tournaments are a great opportunity to highlight the teamwork between the community, the IDRD and the Local Mayor’s Offices. We are going to take over the parks from Monday to Friday, between seven in the afternoon and ten at night to improve the safety of neighborhoods and parks and of course encourage the practice of sport throughout the city.

New sport in action

This year, the great novelty in the Night Tournaments will be 3×3 basketball, which is added to the traditional indoor soccer that was present in the 2022 edition.

In the competitions, which will take place in local parks –that is, in the heart of the neighborhoods–, the participation of 5,160 people is expected, distributed as follows:

• Indoor soccer: 4,360 participants

-Female branch, over 18 years

Teams: 140

Women benefited: 1,400

-Male branch, over 18 years

Teams: 296

Men benefited: 2,960

• 3×3 Basketball: 800 participants

-Female branch, over 18 years

Teams: 60

Women benefited: 300

-Male branch, over 18 years

Teams: 100

Men benefited: 500

Registration to be part of these tournaments will be open until next May 7. The competitions will last four months and will be held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

In the 2022 edition of the night tournaments, 4,210 people benefited – 1,357 women and 2,853 men – from 18 locations in Bogotá; 260 male and 122 female teams were present, in the single category for ages 16 and up, and 727 games were played in 100 neighborhood parks in the city.

Unusual: authorities found a clandestine shuffleboard court that operated on the same site as a kindergarten north of Bogotá

In recent days, in a night operation, the Bogotá authorities found a shuffleboard court in the same place where a kindergarten operated north of the capital.

Tejo is an emblematic sport in Colombia, which has always been immersed in the national culture. Its methodology consists of throwing a disc at a point (wick) located at a certain distance. Depending on the number of wicks achieved, the person acquires points. It is characteristic of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense region and was declared a national sport in the year 2000. However, people have taken advantage of this to have clandestine establishments.

Through the intervention of the Secretary of Security, through the Night Command, A clandestine shuffleboard court was found in the same place where a kindergarten of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) was located in the El Codito neighborhood, Usaquén locality.

“In this place, abundant liquor and gunpowder wicks were found that were used in the shuffleboard court, elements that were very close to the area where minors circulated,” reported the Secretariat.

The other entities that were part of the procedure were the Local Mayor’s Office of Usaquén, Military Police Number 15, Colombia Migration, Special Administrative Unit for Public Services (Uaesp), District Secretariat for Social Integration, Cundinamarca Government and District Government Secretariat.