Bahrain's National Sports Day approved

Manama : Bahrain will have an all new ‘National Sports Day’ starting 2017, the Bahrain Olympic Committee announced yesterday at the committee premises in Seef. It would involve all segments of the Bahrain society.

It is scheduled to take place on the second week of February starting next year and is an initiative by the BOC to promote a healthy lifestyle among the population.

The BOC will now address the government to execute the decision and release a circulation to both the government and private sectors in Bahrain to take part in this national event, which is in compliance with the decision of the GCC National Olympic Committees’ Presidents to have a national sports day organised on the same day in all six countries of the region.

This decision was revealed at the seventh BOC board meeting, chaired by President HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Representative of His Majesty the King for Charity Work and Youth Affairs, and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, also reviewed a number of subjects with his board on the meeting agenda.

Shaikh Nasser also took this opportunity to congratulate the Bahrain Athletics Association on winning the 17th Arab Championships in Algeria where they took 20 medals in total (14 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze). He issued his directives to prepare for the national sports federations elections for the 2016/2020 term, as well as a qualifying course for sports federations’ presidents, who are to be elected for the new electoral cycle.

The BOC president also directed the building of specialised sports schools in each of the four governorates in cooperation with the Education Ministry in an attempt to develop the students’ physical and educational skills.

Also discussed was the committee’s General Secretariat reports, such as the Shaikh Isa bin Rashid Al Khalifa Award for Voluntary Work, the Third GCC Conference on Sport and Environment that took place last February in Dubai.

Other reports presented at the meeting were relevant to the women’s training centre action plan and the medical clinics programmes.

The initiative of establishing a GCC Sports Dispute Centre in Bahrain as per decision of Presidents of National Olympic Committees in their 30th meeting held last month in Riyadh was also discussed.