A crowd of onlookers gasped as they craned their necks to look upwards at a young woman standing on a small platform dangling from the top of a very tall crane. An instructor fussed around her, checking and re-checking the bungee cord he had tied around her legs.
“She’s very brave,” a young man, his mouth agape, said. “That thing is at least 55 metres high.”
The bungee-jump was part of the sporting activities on display yesterday at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) as part of the Bahrain Sports Day – actually a three-day event running till February 12. Organised by the Bahrain Sports for All Association, the annual celebration of every conceivable sporting activity, Bahrain Sports Day has been approved as a national event by first deputy chairman of the Supreme Council of Sports, General Sports Authority chairman and president of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Across the kingdom, ministries, businesses and other organisations arranged sporting events for top-level management and employees alike to participate in.
Meanwhile, popular Arabic ditties echoed around the concourse in front of the entrance to the main BIC building behind which lay the racetrack: the scene of many a grand battle during the annual Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, a popular destination on the international F1 circuit.
A couple of powered parachutes flew overhead, each trailing a large Bahraini flag, as the music stopped. A couple of minutes later, as an announcer declared that Shaikh Khalid had arrived to officially inaugurate the event, the humongous speakers on a carefully-positioned stage started belting out national songs.
“I’m so happy to be here,” Aman Adnan, an 18-year-old student who was volunteering as an usher, said. “This event is so important for everyone, not just youngsters like me. It emphasises the importance of sport in our lives; the need to stay healthy and fit.”
Every national sports association and federation had set up shop, with small enclosures – each representing a different sport – spread across the concourse. While professional athletes were on hand to demonstrate their skills, every activity was open to anyone who wanted to join in – but only under strict supervision.
Reem, a student in her early twenties, watched a couple of young girls feint and stab as they fenced under the watchful gaze of a trainer. “Fencing has always fascinated me,” she said. “Now, that I’ve seen these girls demonstrate their prowess up close, I think I’m also going to start learning to fence.”
A horde of cyclists, nearly a hundred strong, whizzed past. “Hey, you’re wearing the wrong clothes for the occasion,” one shouted, cheerily, as they rode by a man dressed in a suit.
A group of runners jogged slowly from one end of the concourse to the other and back again. “We’re doing an endurance run,” a runner said, without seeming to be out of breath.
Every dozen yards or so, the athletes ran past an exhibition of a different sporting discipline: archery, boxing, table tennis, paddle tennis, foosball, rugby, MMA, wrestling, chess and more. Creativity was on display, too, with women artists, from across the age spectrum, sketching and painting scenes of their choice.
The music had switched back into popular mode after Shaikh Khalid’s departure and families milled around food stalls at either end of the concourse. A small boy of about five tugged at his mother’s hand near one of the stalls, trying to convince her to take him to a play-area for children one last time.
At the boxing enclosure, complete with a proper ring, Ragad Al Naimi, a 27-year-old physical instructor, wrapped a protective bandage around one of her hands, her movements precise and measured.
“I am training to fight competitively,” she explained, as she slipped a glove on. “I know what it takes to get fit for a bout. And I can’t overstate the importance of celebrating a day like this: it’s a message to everyone in our country to try and stay healthy by taking up some kind of sporting activity.”
Halfway across the arena, Elliot Behan, a Bahrain Rugby Football Club (BRFC) player, was teaching a young girl how to throw a rugby ball through a fairly large training hoop.
“We set up this stall to introduce rugby to more people,” he said, clapping as his teenaged student managed to get the oblong ball through the hoop.
Just a short distance away, Mohamed Tissir, a Moroccan international chess master who has lived in Bahrain since 2007, stared at a chess-board, deep in thought, as his opponent waited patiently. Next to him, two children stood on a large chess-mat on the floor, actually playing chess with pieces that were almost as big as they were.
Back at the bungee-jumping crane, a volunteer had just ridden up to the top, preparatory to jumping off. But, after a few minutes of discussion with the instructor, the platform slowly descended: the young man had experienced a bout of dizziness.
“Right, that’s it,” said one of the onlookers, who had commented earlier. “I’m going to go and watch a less terrifying sport.”
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