THE Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) yesterday unveiled a new set of initiatives for 2018 as well as its other activities in an attempt to promote sports within the Bahrain community.
The highlight at the press conference, held yesterday at Rami Grand Hotel in Seef, was the unveiling of five new sports projects that target citizens and expats of all ages.
These were announced by Supreme Council for Youth and Sports assistant general secretary and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) general secretary Abdulrahman Askar.
The first initiative is the Bahrain International Futsal Challenge, to be held in the final week of March with 300 players playing matches for a continuous 60 hours in a bid to promote tourism in Bahrain and break the present Guinness World Record.
Bahrain will also become the first nation in the Middle East to organise a dedicated Baby Games in the beginning of April.
The event will feature five different sports – athletics, gymnastics, football, basketball and weightlifting, and targets two to four year old children in an attempt to create an awareness among youngsters to practice sports and promote the Olympic principles and values at a young age.
Another initiative is the Sports Talents Programme which aims to discover extremely skilfull young athletes,who could become the heroes of Bahrain in the future.
The first stage of the programme will commence on March 4 when online registration gets underway before selecting the most talented athletes for the second stage of the programme.
Bahrain is also bringing a first of its kind Olympic Museum with the aim to document the entire sporting history of Bahrain.
Initiative
The fifth and last initiative will be the Olympic Park due to be ready by December. It will be located at Al Areen Wildlife Park and Reserve in Sakhir.
This project will honour athletes who have achieved a great feat, like winning a gold medal, by planting a tree in their name at the venue.
BOC will also be hosting the Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Scientific Research Award in the field of sports on March 13.
The fifth edition of the Schools Mini Olympics has also been approved this year and will be see approximately 3,500 students from government and private schools competing in 20 sports between March 8 to 22.
Other events include a special ceremony to honour ex-Bahraini athletes on April 17, the First International Physical Literacy Conference from April 22 to 24, the Olympic Day on June 22, in addition to taking part at the Jakarta Asian Games and the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires this summer.