Berlin witnessed the remarkable participation of Oman, in the 16th edition of the World Summer Games of Special Olympics 2023 whose team in Futsal has qualified for the final round of the group and will face Pakistan on Sunday (today).
“The objective of the games is to achieve greater recognition and social participation of people with intellectual disabilities in our society,” stated Special Olympics, World Games, Berlin 2023.
The Summer Games in Berlin has 36 athletes from Oman competing in various sports.
When Zaid bin Ahmed al Jabri was a panelist at the press conference announcing Oman’s participation at Summer World Games at Berlin 2023, he showed a cool confidence.
Today he has the same attitude wearing his gold medal as he won in Golf at World Games Berlin 2023.
Discipline and hard work paid off, but was not quite so easy, said Zaid’s father, Ahmed bin Mohammed al Jabri. "It was a tough game and Zaid was a bit nervous while facing his opponents, judges and people surrounding him, but with Allah’s grace he did well on second and third day. The final day was very good for him. This has given him tremendous experience. As parents we would like Zaid to continue with Golf and provide him further training so he can participate in more national and international competitions. He is at the moment very excited and I am proud of what he has achieved.”
Parents have been excited watching their children participate and win leaving behind any thoughts on disabilities.
Since the games began on June 17, Oman Special Olympics Team has won 20 medals in total - four gold medals, four silver medals and 12 bronze.
The latest two gold medals have been won by Deema al Raisi and Ameera al Raisi. Mulook al Yahyai won gold in roller skating and Mashal al Amri won gold in 50m swimming race.
Thuraiya al Shibani won silver in athletics and Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al Azizi won bronze for men in the same field.
Mohammed al Siyabi and Haitham al Mandari won silver in table tennis.
Shadia al Shukaili won the bronze medal in the long jump category as part of the intense competitions. Mohammed al Mukhaini was recognised for his distinguished performance for different competitions in weightlifting and is bringing home three bronze medals. Abdulaziz al Balushi won four bronze medals in weightlifting.
Hammam al Rowas won bronze in roller skating, Fatma al Harthi also won bronze in equestrian. The badminton team consisting of Khalid al Marhoon and Ajman Bait Maqas claimed bronze.
The World Games achieved what it set out for and on June 24 major events came to a conclusion. On June 25, the finals will see Oman Team at Futsal.
Mark Solomeyer, National Athlete Leader and Special Olympics Germany Vice-President, had stated, "We want to welcome people from all over the world to Berlin. We want to show through the spirit of sport how invaluable inclusion can be for everyone, and how much fun and joy we can have together.” And the players did just that as they also experienced playing with unified teams, spirit of winning and losing, being exposed to different cultures and international audience and most importantly, inclusion.
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