The Oman Olympic Committee (OOC) and the national athletes are all set to represent the Sultanate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games which is scheduled to take place from July 23 to August 8.
Five athletes from Oman will take part in four competitions including athletics, swimming, shooting and weightlifting. The attendance of the Sultanate’s athletes in Tokyo Olympics came through obtaining Olympic invitation cards after all the athletes met the requirements of these invitations besides the positive efforts made by the OOC officials with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the international sports federations.
The Sultanate’s squad in Tokyo includes Oman flag bearer Issa Sameer al Adawi, who competes in 100 metres freestyle swimming, sprinter Barakat Mubarak al Harthy and Mazoon al Alawi (100 metres sprint), shooter Hamad Said al Khatri in 50 m rifle competitions in 3 positions and the weightlifter Amer Salim al Khanjari in the 81-kg weight category.
Oman’s Chef de mission
Oman’s Chef de mission, Kazim al Balushi, arrived in Tokyo on Monday night to begin his initial assignments ahead of arrival of the other Sultanate delegation to 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Al Balushi began his daily tasks and secured all the administration and logistics preparations ahead of receiving the delegation members and national teams in the Olympic village.
“We have received approval from the organising committee on all our requirements related to accommodation, transportation and logistics arrangements. My request to all the national team representatives to follow all the rules and regulations related to using different facilities. Moreover, our continuous advise to all the athletes and participants to adhere fully all the medical and precautionary measures to reserve the safety of everyone and have a safe Olympic Games,” he said.
Commenting on the 'Activity plan' he said,” Activity plan is very significant for every member in any delegation. Through it, the organising committee will know all your movements in Tokyo. We have obtained approvals for almost all of the Sultanate delegations as they meet all the requirements. More confirmations will be received very soon,” he ended.
Quarantine process completed!
In accordance to the medical instructions and procedures mentioned in the playbook, the Sultanate’s Chef de mission and OOC media officer are under a period of quarantine in the Olympic Village for three days from the day of arrival at the Sports Village. Kazem Al Balushi attended his first physical meeting of Chef de missions in Olympic Village after taking part in several meetings virtually. During the meeting, Kazem signed all the documents related to accommodation, transportation and other logistics related arrangement.
Prior arrival of Oman’s administrative delegation in Tokyo, all the members were very keen to follow all the mandatory medical preventive precautions. Having the PCR test before start and arrival in Tokyo and every two days for the first 14 days in Japan is mandatory to ensure negative for Covid for every participant in Olympics.
OCHA and Coco applications
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Government of Japan requested all the arrivals to Tokyo to install and download OCHA application in their smartphone prior arrival to Japan. OCHA is a smartphone application that will support Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 athletes and staffs manage the procedures smoothly on entering Japan and register health conditions during their full stay in Japan. Oman’s Chef de mission circulated to all the delegation members on the steps required to complete the installation and registering in the application.
Coco is another vital smart application which to be used by everyone in Tokyo 2020 Olympics. It is similar to Oman’s Tarrusd app and it notifies you of close contact with Covid-19 positive users to help the government and healthcare organisations contain the spread of Covid-19.
IMMUNISATION
The OOC in coordination with other concerned government authorities represented by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, Ministry of Health, medical departments in the Royal Court Affairs (RCA) and other relevant health authorities, all the Sultanate’s delegation members were vaccinated against Covid-19 as all received two doses of vaccine.
Oman’s athletes' participation in the immunisation campaign was part of supporting the efforts taken by the Ministry of Health in its national campaign for immunisation against Covid 19 which was launched in the Sultanate since last December. The orgaising committee and IOC affirmed in the playbook full adherence to all the precautionary measures and preventing all gathering as much as possible in order to secure everyone safe from the ongoing pandemic.
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