Thursday 25 / April / 2024
Muscat: Even as the Oman Swimming Association (OSA) is gearing up to conduct association elections, the chief of Sultanate’s swimming body Taha bin Sulaiman Al Kishry and his fellow board members are drawing plans for their ambitious Vision 2020 Programme.
The fact that the OSA is chalking out plans with an eye on 2020 Olympics in Tokyo is reason enough for Taha and his team to speak about their achievements during the 2013-16 tenure and their vision for the next four-year period.
The latest beneficiary of OSA’s programmes is Oman’s leading swimmer Isa Al Adawi. Under an agreement with the organisers of the Tokyo 2020, Isa will get an opportunity to train and compete in Japan till the Games start in four years time.
Speaking at a press conference organised on Monday mainly to reveal the details of the Isa Al Adawi’s ‘Olympic’ progamme, for which the OSA board members deserve all the credit, Taha and his colleagues utilised the occasion to highlight the achievements of the present board while expressing their desire to continue with the good work for the development of Oman swimming.
Taha, who will be seeking another term as the chairman in the November 29 elections, first spoke about the programme planned for Isa Al Adawi, one of Oman’s most promising talents and one who won many medals in various regional tournaments in the recent times.
“Isa is a very talented swimmer and has won laurels for the country in many regional championships. But we have set higher goals for him, we want to see him qualify for the Olympics instead of depending on wild cards for his participation.”
“So we have worked out a programme where he can study as well as train and compete in highly rated championships till the 2020 Olympics,” Taha, who was recently elected unopposed as the Secretary-General of the Asian Swimming Federation (AASF), said.
The arrangement has been made possible thanks to Taha’s good relations with the international swimming officials, especially with the Japan Swimming Federation.
“We (the OSA) have been doing such arrangements for other talented swimmers locally with the educational institutions like schools and colleges in Oman. But this is time we have worked out a plan for Isa with 2020 Olympics in mind,” he added.
“Isa will be travelling to Tokyo on a scholarship, under which he will be able to study in a college, and train and compete in the Japanese championships right up to the start of the Olympics. The championships there are highly competitive... remember most of the Japanese swimmers who took part in the Rio Olympics came through those championships. I am sure Isa will benefit from his stay in Japan,” he added.
Locally, the OSA has already helped around of five long-distance swimmers, facilitating their admissions to colleges in Oman, three of whom have already been graduated.
Two of Oman’s well-known swimmers — Mohammed Naseeb and Abdulrahman Al Qulaibi, were on hand at the press briefing to vouch for Taha’s claims of supporting young Omani talents by facilitating their educational engagements with the local schools and colleges.
“The OSA has been working with a clear vision and has been giving the Omani swimmers utmost care. Thanks to their efforts, the level has gone up not just in the performance of the swimmers but also in the technical and administrative aspects,” Mohammed Naseeb said.
“All credit to the OSA and their efforts we were able to win, for the first time, ten gold medals at the GCC championships (in Dammam in August),” Al Qulaibi said referring to achievements of the national team, of which he was part of.
Many challenges
Turning his attention to other achievements of the present board, Taha said: “Our endeavour has always been to develop swimming across the Sultanate. At the beginning of this term (2013-2016), we spoke about the further popularising the sport and developing the training centres across the country. We have already achieved success in that front.”
OSA now runs six training centres in Buraimi, Musandam, Muscat, Sohar, Nizwa and Salalah.
“Our plans of training the local talents at these centres have been going on well. Now our next goal... our responsibility, is to have these boys picked by various clubs. By 2018 we would like to see these swimmers representing different clubs when we will launch our inter-club championships,” Taha said.
OSA General Secretary Qais Al Zakwani, who will also be seeking another term, said: “At the beginning, our goal was to broaden the base and we have achieved that to a great extend as we now have around 800 swimmers. Our next goal is to raise the level of their performance.”
Speaking about the development at the technical and administrative front, he said: “One of our many challenges was to develop professionally qualified referees, which is vital for the development of the sport. We now have 18 international referees, 12 of them are FINA accredited officials.”
Lone challenger
Meanwhile, in the November 29 elections Taha, an Ahli-Sidab Club nominee, will be facing a lone challenger for the post of the chairmanship in the form of Nasser Al Alawi of Al Talee’a Club.
The contest for the vice-chairmanship will also be a two-horse race between Khalid bin Ahmed Al Shuhi of Kasab and Tariq bin Hashmi of Al Kamil Wa Al Wafi. Qais Al Zakwani, who is a representative of Al Khabourah, will face off against Ahli-Sidab’s Khalid Al Dahli for the general secretary’s post.
List of candidates
Chairman: Taha Al Kishry (Ahli-Sidab), Nasser bin Said Al Alawi (Al Talee’a).
Vice-chairman: Khalid bin Ahmed Al Shuhi (Kasab), Tariq Al Hashmi (Al Kamil Wa Al Wafi).
General Secretary: Qais Al Zakwani (Al Khabourah), Khalid Al Dahli (Ahli-Sidab).
Treasurer: Ahmed Mubarak (Suwaiq), Ashraf bin Said Al Harbi (Quriyat), Mumtaz bin Fakir Al Balushi (Oman).
Members: Abdulmunim Al Alawi (Jalan), Mohammed Salim (Baushere), Salim Al Alawi (Al Kamil Wa Al Wafi), Sami Al Riyami (Nizwa), Dr Nasser Al Aufi (Bahla), Ahmed Sulaiman (Samayil), Said Masoud (Al Musannah), Salim Al Balushi (Bidiya), Qasim Al Ajmi (Sohar), Ali AL Sheedi (Saham), Malallah Al Busaidi (Oman) and Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Hakim (Al Nasr).
