Muscat, Sept 8 - Oman Paralympic Committee (OPC) is set to take part in the second edition of the West Asian Paralympic Games to be held in Jordan capital of Amman from September 15 to 22. The Sultanate delegation comprised of 45 athletes and team staff at the continental event. Three main events Oman is competing include blind soccer, basketball team on the chairs and team athletics.
As many as 500 athletes from 12 West Asian countries will participate in the tournament besides hundreds of volunteers who will be available to assist the athletes and teams. The participating countries are: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Sultanate team.
Dr Mansoor al Touqi, Chairman of OPC, stated that the objective of participation at the West Asian Paralympic Games is to ensure the Sultanate’s role and its positive contribution in spreading the Paralympic Games in the region and to raise the Sultanate flag at Asian level in this top event.
“Another main aim of Oman’s participation in West Asian Paralympic Games is to develop the technical level performance of the national teams by competing with top Asian teams. Also, it is an encouragement for the athletes from this category to compete at this level and achieve different accomplishments for the country,” the chief of OPC added.
Al Touqi pointed out that all teams completed their preparations at top level and are in good spirit. “Lack of funding resources, affected to provide a proper intensive training plan for the some teams expect athletics team which had an overseas camp in Tunisia. Special thanks to all our partners and sponsors for their continuous support and we are looking forward to have more partners in the upcoming activities of the committee in order to register better accomplishments in the upcoming participations,” he concluded.
In the past few years, Oman’s Paralympic team registered many achievements by reaching top positions in the regional, continental and international Paralympic competitions and championships.
Oman’s paralympic stars won seven medals in total in the 13th edition of the Tunisia International Paralympics Athletics event in July. Also, the Sultanate’s Paralympics heroes had claimed 47 medals at the Special Olympics World Games held in Abu Dhabi in March.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
