ANOC Advances Preparations for World Beach Games

(ATR) Representatives from the 14 sports of the Games are meeting in Doha to prepare for this October’s event.

An IF technical delegate meeting started Friday in the Qatari capital. It concludes on Saturday. About 1400 competitors from 70 nations will participate in the 16 sports disciplines on the program.

A Chef de Mission seminar involving more than 100 NOC representatives will be held in Doha from July 8-11.

Gunilla Lindberg, secretary general of the Association of National Olympic Committees, was in the city this week to progress preparations for the multisports event.

On Wednesday, she held talks with Qatar Olympic Committee secretary general Jassim bin Rashid Al Buainain about organizational aspects of the World Beach Games and to plan the ANOC General Assembly, which is scheduled for October.

Since Qatar was awarded the Games in June, Around the Rings is told that the Qatar Olympic Committee has confirmed all the necessary hotels and meeting spaces for the event.

The QOC has also formed its organising committee for the World Beach Games, assigning staff and resources across the various operational areas and engaged with the relevant national federations.

"Preparations are well underway and good progress has already been made in a short period of time," ANOC said in a statement. "Secretary general Lindberg praised the QOC for their work and expressed her complete confidence that they will host fantastic events for the world’s NOCs and their athletes."

In June, ANOC announced that the oil-rich Gulf nation would replace San Diego as beach games host. The U.S. city was stripped of hosting rights in May after city officials were unable to find the private financing to fund the games.

The Games are set for a waterfront location and will run from Oct. 12-16.

Reported by Mark Bisson

25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.