MUSCAT: The Oman Olympic committee confirmed four athletes including sprinters Ali al Balushi, Mazoon al Alawi, shooter Said al Khatri and swimmer Issa al Adawi to represent Sultanate of Oman in the forthcoming 33rd edition of the Summer Olympic Games (Paris 2024) which begins on July 26 and runs until August 11.
Ali bin Anwar al Balushi, the 22 year-old sprinter, will make his Olympic debut at Paris 2024 Olympics after he secured slot through ranking 49th in the world classification at the 100m event which gave him the direct ticket to the Olympics.
The flag bearer of the last Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 Swimmer Issa bin Hamed al Adawi, 25 years-old, will attend the Paris Olympic Games for his second successive time. While shooter Said bin Ali al Khatri, 39 years-old, will make his debut too in Paris Olympic Games as he will compete in shooting competitions.
The women athlete representation in Oman’s delegation will be through sprinter Mazoon bin Khalfan al Alawi, 27 years-old, who will register her third attendance in row at Olympic Games after she took part at Rio Olympic Games in 2016 and Tokyo Games in 2020.
This participation at Paris Olympic Games will mark Oman’s 11th times presence in the summer Olympic Games since first historic participation in 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Oman athletes hopes are still very high to clinch their historic Olympic medal through various young potential athletes. The Sultanate of Oman’s best participation is back to 1988 Seoul Olympics as the legend’s sprinter Mohammed al Malki had reached to semifinals of the 400m event before he ended in the eighth place.
In the previous attendance of Oman’s delegation at 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, swimmer Issa had ended in the sixth place with a timing of 51:81 in the 100m freestyle event while Sprinter Mazoon al Alawi had completed the100m race event in the sixth position with a timing of 12:35 seconds. Then, Oman’s sprinter Barakat al Harthy advanced to Round one of the men’s 100m race event in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. He had led the preliminary heat two group and clocked 10:27 seconds as his seasonal best record. In the round One qualification heat five of men’s 100m race event, Barkat had clocked 10:31 seconds.
Weightlifter Amer al Khanjari had finished as runner up in weightlifting competition at men’s 81kg — group B event and in tenth place in the overall order of the category. The 23 years-old had managed to register his best personal record in his debut in Tokyo 2020 Olympics as he had lifted a total 317 kg with four kg extra than his previous record in Egypt.
Shooter Hamed al Khatri had registered a total of 1148 (382- kneeling, 392-prone, 374-standing) to finish 35th place among the 39 world ranking shooters in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions qualifications event.
The official Sultanate of Oman’s delegation to Paris Olympics will be led by Shaikh Khalid bin Mohammed al Zubair, OOC chairman, Taha al Kishry OOC Secretary-General and besides some officials from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth and OOC.
Oman’s chef-de-mission will be Ali al Busafi while Amir al Zeidi will accompany as physiotherapist. The OOC will unveil further details on Oman’s participation at the Olympic Games in Paris on Thursday through a press meet at the OOC headquarters.
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