Our national junior athletics team delegation arrived in Tunisia in preparation for the fifth edition of the Arab Championships, hosted by Rades Stadium from 7 to 9 June with 18 Arab countries taking part. The journey took a full five hours, prompting delegation officials to give our champions a short rest to avoid fatigue, before they headed to the stadium with coaches Salah and Khamis to get a feel for the venue and take a quick look ahead of intensive training this morning on the Rades Stadium track, which hosts competition from tomorrow, Sunday, according to the schedule that has programmed the various track and field events in the morning starting at 9am and around midday starting at 4pm. Our national team delegation is staying at the Al Mouradi Hotel in the Gammarth area, about half an hour from Rades Stadium, where all members of the technical and administrative staff and the athletes are staying, along with Mohammed Jassim Al Kuwari, secretary-general of the Qatar Athletics Federation, who attended the championship as an administrative delegate for the Arab federation, in addition to Abdulhakim Al Ameri, a federation board member and head of the technical committee, who is present as a representative of the Arab federation’s technical committee.
The championship is seeing a record number of participating countries, with 18 Arab nations confirming their participation – alongside host country Tunisia and Qatar: Morocco, Algeria, Kuwait, Egypt, Djibouti, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Bahrain, Palestine, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Oman and Somalia.
In the same context, the championship’s organising committee held a press conference attended by Fethi Hachicha, president of the Tunisian Athletics Federation, Sulaiman Awad Al Zaidi, president of the Arab Athletics Federation, and Mona Ben Mohamed, head of the organising committee.
Fethi Hachicha, the Tunisian federation president, expressed his happiness that Tunisia was hosting this championship for tomorrow’s champions and the future, highlighting the large number of participating countries as evidence that Tunisia was stable and safe. Hachicha wished all delegations a pleasant and comfortable stay, and hoped the championship would produce promising results bearing every good sign.
The Arab federation president said this championship indeed presented an important opportunity for future champions to emerge, especially as it precedes the World Championships to be held in Colombia this July, noting the large number of participating countries as proof of the championship’s strength, and also praised the excellent preparations made by the Tunisian federation to organise the Arab event.
Lotfi Obeid, representing the Tunisian Olympic Committee, welcomed the Arab delegations, wishing them a pleasant stay and good results at the championship. Mona Ben Mohamed, head of the Arab Championships’ organising committee, closed the press conference by presenting the schedule of seminars and meetings of the Arab federation’s committees to be held on the sidelines of the championship, foremost among them the scientific seminar on Arab athletics – problems and prospects – to be presented by Moroccan athletics expert Aziz Daouda today, Saturday.
Composition of the national team delegation
Our national team delegation is headed by Abdulrahman Al Noubi, a federation board member, and includes Mai Al Mohammedi as team manager, Saleh Hassan as the boys’ team official, and Nadia Abdulaziz Al Khanji as the girls’ team official, in addition to five male athletes and just one female athlete: Mohanad Khamis Abdullah in the 2000m steeplechase, Abduljalil Ahmed Al Menaei in the 110m hurdles, Saad Ahmed Al Menaei and Abdullah Hassan Al Rubaie in the decathlon, Abdulrahman Jamal Khaseef in the hammer throw and shot put, and Maryam Mamdouh Farid in the 200m and 400m hurdles.
