Muscat, Dec 7
Oman’s national athletics team in different categories are gearing up for the busy year of 2021 as many top regional and international athletics events will be organised after the postponement of many championships due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
The Sultanate sprinters and athletes will take part at the 24th Asian Athletics Championships in Hangzhou in China during May, the GCC Games in Kuwait in March, Asian Beach Games in Sanya city in China, South East Asia Youth Athletics Championships in Malaysia, Asian Indoor (Athletics) in Bangkok, World Athletics Indoor championships, the Arabian Athletics championships and the Summer Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Mohammed al Asmi, the board member of the OAA told Oman Daily Observer that the technical staff of the national athletics teams are monitoring the existing domestic camps.
“The plan was to provide external camps for the sprinters and athletes. Unfortunately, due to the current situation, the association could not arrange for overseas participation. We are depending on the local warm-up camps and will move to the external meets once the situation gets stable,” he said.
Al Asmi affirmed in his statement the association will have an internal gathering for all the players on January 8, 2021 where the top sprinters and potential faces will be selected for the overseas events. “ Moreover, during January we will stand in the status of each players and will do the right evaluation. The technical staff will select the top candidates and move forward with the development plan,” he ended.
The national teams panel at Oman Athletics Association (OAA) is underway in different intensive domestic camps to monitor the athletes shaping to the forthcoming events. They had visited the camps in Muscat and Suhar. The training programmes began since November in Muscat and Suhar. The national experienced coach Mohammed al Hooti is supervising the national athletics team training in Suhar.
The team in Suhar comprised the top star national sprinter Barakat al Harthy, Mazoon al Alawi, Osama al Ghilani, Ammar al Sefi, Khalid al Ghilani, Mohammed al Saadi, Khamis al Hadabi and Mohammed al Mabsali. The training period was divided into two parts morning and evening sessions. The young sprinter Ali Anwar al Balushi is taking part with Muscat training team which is under supervision of Coach Fahad al Mashaikhi, Hamood al Dalhami and Ibrahim al Kharousi.
The team in Muscat comprised of the following members: Wael al Shandudi, Othman al Busaidy, Hussain Hatim, Nawaf al Izki, Yousef al Harthy, Ammar al Shibli, Sameer al Riyami, and Rashid al Asmi.
The Sultanate women athletics team is underway in the domestic training camp in Muscat as well under direct coaching of Laila Abdul Karim. The squad has Lamya al Masfari, Rima al Mughairi, Maitha al Amri and Raghad al Hajri.
Adil Al Balushi
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