Friday 26 / April / 2024
Muscat: Sheikh Khalid Al Zubair, the current chairman of the Oman Olympic Committee (OOC), and his deputy Sheikh Saif Al Hosni were among the four ‘sports personalities’ picked for the OOC roles on Tuesday.
The Sultanate’s Olympic body held an Extra-ordinary General Assembly at OOC Headquarters under the chairmanship of Sheikh Khalid Al Zubair with a three-point agenda — to select two ‘sports personalities’ to the General Assembly, two for the membership of the OOC board and to finalise the formation of a committee to supervise the forthcoming OOC board elections.
The members were originally supposed to pick the four sports personalities from among the five shortlisted candidates but as soon as the Extra-ordinary General Assembly started, the veteran sports administrator Sheikh Saud Al Rawahi requested his name to be excluded from the list.
Sheikh Saud, a very experienced administrator who served the Oman Olympic Committee as well as the Sultanate’s football and athletic associations as the chairman besides being on important committees of international sports bodies, withdrew owing to his commitment to the another committee of the OOC.
“I am already serving the Arbitration Committee of the OOC. So it was not right for me to be holding two memberships of the same organisation,” Sheikh Saud explained.
His decision made it easy for the members elect the four sports personalities.
While the General Assembly selected current chairman Sheikh Khalid Al Zubair and Sheikh Saif Al Hosni as ‘sports personalities’ eligible to contest the OOC board elections, former Oman Hockey Association chairman Dawood Al Raisi and Muscat Club chief Sheikh Khalid Al Wahaibi were picked as the members of the OOC General Assembly.
Later speaking to Times Sport, Sheikh Khalid Al Zubair said: “As per the OOC Statutes, the board has to select four sports personalities for these roles — two for the membership of the General Assembly and two for the membership of the board.”
While the two members selected for the General Assembly will have the right to vote, the other two selected members will be eligible to contest the OOC board elections.
The decision also means both Sheikh Khalid Zubair and Sheikh Saif Al Hosni have shown the interest to contest the forthcoming OOC board elections, which are likely to be conducted either at the end of this year or early 2017.
Election panel
Meanwhile, the Extra-ordinary General Assembly also finalised the list of the committee that will oversee the forthcoming board elections.
The five-member panel will be headed by Ahmed Saif Al Barwani and comprises Sheikh Sultan Al Hosni, Abdullah Nasr Al Qusaibi, Said Khamis Al Malki and Abdulrahman Mohammed Ahmed.
Earlier in his address to the members, Sheikh Khalid Al Zubair thanked the General Assembly for the trust shown in the first elected board members of the Oman Olympic Committee.
“It is thanks to the trust shown by the General Assembly, we (board members) were able to achieve the objective both at the technical and administrative level. Despite the shortage of time, the board members worked hard to tackle various issues after in-depth research, analysis and assessment leading to solutions and achievements.”
Listing some of the achievements, he said: “Formation of OOC Statutes and its approval by the International Olympic Committee, similar approval for the Disputes Resolution and Arbitration Committees, facilitating the private sector support to various sports activities and associations were some of the milestones achieved by this board.”
Sheikh Khalid Al Zubair also mentioned how the professional and positive approach led to on-field success of Omani athletes and teams in various international multi-sports championships.
“Thanks to the scientific and practical approach adopted by the OOC, the Sultanate won around 42 medals at various multi-sports championships, besides emerging as the overall champions at the 2015 GCC Beach Games in Qatar. In the recent Asian Beach Games held in Vietnam, the Omani athletes returned home with four medals, including one gold and three silver.”
