YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES – Bahrain are set to field four athletes across three sports at the fast-approaching fourth Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, starting the end of the month.
The world’s best young sportsmen and women, aged 15 to 17 years old, will be flying the flags of more than 200 countries from around the world in the event, which officially gets underway on Saturday and continues until November 13.
The meeting is set to feature 25 sports, with the kingdom’s medal hopefuls going for gold in swimming, wrestling, and fencing, the Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) has announced.
The BOC held a meeting last week with the members of Bahrain’s administrative team that will be in Dakar.
The gathering was headed by BOC executive director of operations and the kingdom’s Chef de Mission at this year’s Youth Olympic Games, Ahmed Abdulghaffar.
He gave the team members a brief overview of the event, including the size of Bahrain’s delegation, their accommodation, the athletes’ village, travel and transportation arrangements, the opening ceremony, general health and safety guidelines, and all other aspects of participation.
Abdulghaffar and other delegation officials also held a meeting with representatives from Bahrain Aquatics, the Bahrain Wrestling Federation, and the Bahrain Fencing Association to discuss all matters relating to their athletes’ participation in Dakar.
Amongst the four youngsters confirmed to be competing for Bahrain are swimmers Ali Hussain and Sara Alqarooni, and wrestler Ali Mohammed Zaman.
The kingdom’s fencer has yet to be revealed.
The swimming competitions will be the first to be held from November 1 to 6. Wrestling will follow on November 7 and 8, and then the fencing events will take place from November 8 to 12.
Saturday’s opening ceremony will be held at the 50,000-capacity Stade Abdoulaye Wade du Senegal, while the athletes’ village is located on the campus of Amadou Mahtar Mbow University.
This year’s Youth Olympic Games is its fourth edition. Senegal is the first country on the African continent to be awarded the honour of hosting an Olympic sports event.
The International Olympic Committee spectacle is expected to feature nearly 3,000 athletes from around the world, who will be competing in 153 events across 25 sports.
Bahrain participated in all three previous editions of the Youth Olympic Games, including in 2010 in Singapore; in 2014 in Nanjing, China; and in 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Bahrain have two medals from the event, both won in Nanjing, with now-international superstar Salwa Eid Naser having taken silver in the girls’ 400 metres and Dalila Gosa claiming bronze in the girls’ 1,500m in athletics.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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