ASIAN YOUTH GAMES – The excitement ahead of the third Asian Youth Games is about to hit fever pitch as Bahrain continued to welcome yesterday more groups of officials from the participating delegations.
The mega multi-sport event is set to be hosted by the kingdom under the royal patronage of His Majesty King Hamad.
It is scheduled to officially get underway with the opening ceremony on Wednesday next week, but action in a number of sports will begin from Sunday.
More than 4,300 athletes, both boys and girls aged 14 to 18 years old representing 45 National Olympic Committees from across the continent, will be flocking to Bahrain alongside their respective team officials, administrators, coaches and support staff.
They will be vying for medals in 26 sports while also hoping to secure qualification for the Youth Olympic Games 2026 in Dakar, Senegal.
Amongst those who reached the island yesterday were delegation officials from Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and the Philippines.
Participants are scheduled to continue arriving over the next few days as this highly anticipated edition of the Asian Youth Games inches closer.
Bahrain’s deputy Chef de Mission Abbas Bu Hassan said yesterday that the kingdom’s national teams are ready and looking forward to competing amongst the continent’s best young talent.
He explained that the national administrative delegation has worked tirelessly to complete all logistical and technical arrangements related to supporting Bahrain’s athletes, in implementation of the directives of the Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC).
Bu Hassan highlighted that the hosts’ ambitions are high to achieve honourable results in this year’s event, and added that the kingdom’s rising stars are eager to represent the country in the best possible light at home.
A number of Bahrain’s national squads have recently completed their overseas camps as part of their training programmes leading up to the Games.
Among them are Bahrain’s girls’ volleyball national team, who had a camp in Jordan; the boys’ volleyball team, who trained in Egypt; and the kingdom’s girls’ and boys’ table tennis teams, who geared up for their participation with a camp in Türkiye.
Bahrain’s boys’ futsal squad, meanwhile, are scheduled to compete in a friendly game against their counterparts from Saudi Arabia this weekend in the Eastern Province.
Bahrain are participating in all 26 sports in this year’s Asian Youth Games, with the kingdom featuring its largest-ever delegation for a continental age-group event.
This includes 356 individuals – comprising 204 athletes; 130 coaches, administration members, and support staff; and 22 officials from the BOC.
The 26 sports that will feature in Bahrain are athletics (track and field and cross country), 3x3 basketball, badminton, volleyball (indoor and beach), road cycling, equestrian (endurance and showjumping), futsal, golf, handball, Muay, jiu-jitsu, judo, kabaddi, mixed martial arts, table tennis, E-sports, taekwondo, wrestling (indoor and beach) boxing, triathlon, weightlifting, teqball, swimming, camel racing, pencak silat, and kurash.
The Games’ official opening ceremony next Wednesday will take place at Exhibition World Bahrain (EWB).
The inauguration will be held indoors for the first time, diverging from the traditional outdoor settings of previous editions of the Games, which were held in Singapore in 2009 and China in 2013.
EWB is one of the main venues of the Games, with others being Isa Sports City in Riffa and Khalifa Sports City in Isa Town, to name only a few.
Several sports will commence at the beginning of next week on Sunday and Monday prior to the opening ceremony.
All others will get underway following the inauguration.
The final day of this year’s Asian Youth Games is on October 31, and it will only feature the official closing ceremony.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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