Bahrain Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games updates

ADMINISTRATORS of the Bahrain delegation for next month’s Fourth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) had a co-ordinating meeting with national sports associations representatives taking part at the Bahrain Swimming Association premises in Isa Town.

The AIMAG, to be held over eight days in Incheon, Korea, from June 29 to 6, will be the first OCA Games to combine the Asian Indoor Games and the Asian Martial Arts Games.

Bahrain’s delegation director Saud Al Ghenaim chaired this meeting as he was briefed on the needs of each of the four national teams competing in the Games. They are swimming, bowling, snooker and billiards.

Speaking during the Al Ghenaim, briefed the attendees on the timetable of the trip to Incheon, as all the teams are scheduled to leave Bahrain on June 25. They delegation will come back on July 7.

The meeting was also an opportunity to explain arrangements related to accommodation, nutrition, transports, the opening ceremony programme and the Bahrain flag hoisting ceremony at the Olympic village.

Representatives of all sports disciplines also collected their media passes for the Games, while the dates for the each team to collect their own sports equipment have been decided.

Also present at the meeting from the sports associations were Hussain Bukhamas (billiards and snooker), Khalid Ahmed (swimming), Waleed Othman, Leena Al Kaabi and Khalid Al Khaja (bowling).

Al Ghenaim also had a separate meeting with the administrative delegation, namely Hamad Al Baker, Mahmood Ashoori and Hassan Ali, and reviewed certain issues regarding their programme in Incheon.

The Asian Indoor Games took place in 2005 (Bangkok, Thailand), 2007 (Macau, China) and 2009 (Hanoi, Vietnam), while the Asian Martial Arts Games was held for the only time in 2009 (Bangkok, Thailand) before the OCA decided to combine the two Games for 2013.

It Provides a large-scale regional competitive arena for a wide range of categories such as Muay Thai, dance sport, billiards, futsal and electronic gaming over 100 events.

Featuring nine sports, the 4th AIMAG will be a high-profile test event for the 17th Asian Games in Incheon the following year.

Nine venues will be specially prepared for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, along with an Athletes’ Village and planned recruitment of 3,000 volunteers for the event.

Venues include seven existing and two new for swimming and futsal, besides five for training. The opening and closing ceremonies will both take place at Samsan World Gymnasium.

The Athletes’ Village consists of local university halls of residence, where 600 vehicles will be made available for transportation.

More than 3,000 have been working as volunteers as recruitment for the Games began in September last year. The main media centre is located at Songdo Convensia, MMC for the Asian Games 2014.

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