Muscat: The competitions of first edition of GCC Youth Games 2024, hosted by UAE, begin on Tuesday and will continue until May 2, with participation of all GCC countries, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain.
The event is being held for the first time for this age group (youth), with the participation of more than 3,500 male and female athletes competing in 24 individual and group games.
Oman teams are participating in 15 sports, including taekwondo and fencing in Al Fujairah. Chess, handball, equestrian and basketball (3x3) will be in Sharjah. Athletics, snooker and billiards, volleyball and table tennis in Dubai, while football, sailing, golf and aquatics will be in Abu Dhabi, in addition to the para sports.
On Tuesday, the Games start with football and taekwondo. The football competitions will be held in Abu Dhabi with the opening match between Oman and hosts UAE. Taekwondo competitions will begin in Fujairah.
Oman athletics, para sports and sailing delegations arrived in the UAE on Sunday, while the other squads of Oman are expected to arrive in the due process.
The Oman under-17 football team will play the opening match against the UAE at 4:30 pm at Al Lataki Stadium on Tuesday, followed by Kuwait and Bahrain match, where the football competition witnesses the participation of four teams -- Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE.
The Oman football team completed final preparation for the opening match with a practice session on Sunday. Team coach Anwar al Habsi focused on tactical, defensive techniques along with psychological preparation.
Al Habsi confirmed that “team’s participation comes as part of the preparations for the upcoming important competitions in the Asian Cup that also acts as a qualifier for the World Cup.”
“The team is in good attendance due to the similar level of the participating teams. We have previously played with UAE and we are in a similar technical situation and we are able to come out with a good result against UAE, as well as the rest of the matches. We appreciate Oman Olympic Committee for their support to the team’s participation,” he added.
The Oman taekwondo team begins their participation on Tuesday with five players. Dawod al Youssoufi will compete in the 33-37 kg category, while Ziad al Balushi (37-41 kg), Muhannad al Hajri (49-53 kg), Dania Abdali (37-41 kg) and Youssef al Zadjali (45-49 kg in junior category) are the other contestants.
On the second day on Wednesday, Al Muhannad al Balushi will compete in 45 kg, while Al Eaz al Maawali (48-51 kg), Qaboos al Balushi (45-48 kg), Abdulrahman al Jabri (51-55 kg) and Fidaa al Barwani (49-52 kg) are others in action.
The para sports team aspire to win medals in their first participation through the four players participating in various athletics competitions, 100, 200, 400 metres, long jump and shot put.
The para sports team arrived in Dubai on Sunday with a delegation that included coaches Abdullah al Anbari and Asaad al Qarni and Hani al Mashaykhi as therapist. The athletes are Ali Saeed al Harithi, Ammar Faisal al Isayi, Faisal Samir al Balushi and Maryam Ahmed al Badiyah.
The athletics team arrived in Dubai on Sunday with 12 male and female athletes in various competitions of speed, medium and long distances, jumping and throwing.
On the other hand, Kuwait announced their participation in the first GCC Youth Games, with the largest delegation of the event, with 210 male and female players competing in 19 sports.
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