Each year, Griffith City Council donates $10,000 to the Gurdwara Society as sponsorship for the annual Sikh Games.

Following the cancellation of the 2021 games due to COVID-19, council has made the decision to divert this funding to assist in the construction of training fields for the games.

The $100,000 fields are being set up at the Sikh temple, and will provide young Griffith residents an area to train in gatka and kabaddi.

The two traditional Indian sports are generally the most-supported events at the Shaheedi Tournament.

A playground is also being set up at the temple as part of the project.

Speaking at last week's council meeting, Councillor Rina Mercuri said re-allocating the $10,000 would help keep tradition alive for young Sikh athletes.

"I'd really like to support this motion as I feel that this will assist the Sikh community to ensure their children learn their traditional games," Cr Mercuri said.

"This will ensure their tradition and culture continues in Griffith throughout the years."

"If the kids aren't taught, they might lose that."

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The Griffith Sikh community has welcomed the re-allocation of the funding.

The Sikh Games usually attracts about 15,000 people, with teams and supporters from as far as Brisbane, Adelaide, and New Zealand traditionally making the trek out to Griffith to compete.

In 2019 it was estimated the Sikh Games added over $3 million to the local economy.

This year would have been the 25^th year the Games had taken place in Griffith, however organisers made the decision to call it off following discussions with council.

Speaking to The Area News, Gurdwara management committee member Narinder Singh Sandhu said it was a disappointing but necessary decision.

"We had meetings and we decided we did not want to jeopardise the community of Griffith so we would postpone the games to 2022," Mr Sandhu said.

"There would have been a lot of restrictions and protocols we would have had to follow, and with people coming from all over Australia, it would have been very difficult to do so."

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