Athletes - First Again
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Official Newsletter of the Olympic Council of Asia Edition 32 - March 2016 FAST AND FURIOUS! WINTER YOG PHOTO SPECIAL OCA General Assembly 2016 OCA/OS Regional Forums Schedule OCA Games Updates 2016-2018 Asia’s Road to Rio Contents Inside your new-look 36-page Sporting Asia Sporting Asia is the official newsletter of the Olympic 3 Council of Asia, published President’s Message quarterly. Sheikh visits Dublin Executive Editor / Director General 14 Husain Al-Musallam [email protected] 4 – 6 News in Pictures Art Director / IT Director Amer Elalami [email protected] 7 Obituary Director, Int’l & NOC Relations Vinod Tiwari [email protected] 8 – 11 Director, Asian Games Department 16 Asia’s Road to Rio 2016 Haider A. Farman [email protected] 12 – 13 Editor 12th South Asian Games India-2016 Jeremy Walker [email protected] Executive Secretary 14 – 15 Nayaf Sraj 4th RADO Conference, Bangkok [email protected] Olympic Council of Asia 16 PO Box 6706, Hawalli 17 Zip Code 32042 Inside the OCA Kuwait Telephone: +965 22274277 - 88 Fax: +965 22274280 - 90 17 – 20 Email: [email protected] Winter YOG, Lillehammer 2016 Website: www.ocasia.org 21 – 23 OCA Games Update 2016-2018 21 24 – 33 10 Pages of News and Photos from 45 NOCs 34 – 35 Front cover: OCA Standing Committees 2015-2019 Action from the semi-finals of the women’s 500m short track speed skating at 36 Lillehammer 2016, with China’s Zang Yize out in OCA Sports Diary front. Photo: Jed Leicester/ 24 YIS/IOC. Page 02 President’s Message RIO OLYMPICS OFFERS SPORT THE CHANCE TO SHINE AGAIN F irst of all welcome to the new-look Sporting Asia! At the start of an Olympic Games year, the sports world is focused on Rio 2016 – and Sporting Asia is no exception. As well as a new design and an increase in the number of pages to 36, Sporting Asia also has a new feature, “Road to Rio”, in which we will be reporting on the qualifying events for the Olympic Games and looking ahead to upcoming championships with Rio places up for grabs. We have also expanded the news and sports section for our 45 National Olympic Committees due to the amount of activities throughout the five zones; this will provide more space for photographs and reports from our NOCs. As I said in my New Year message on the OCA website, the Rio Olympics this August gives international sport the perfect chance to restore the faith of the sports-loving public around the world. There have been far too many negative issues in the recent past, such as doping, match-fixing and corruption among sports leaders, and it is time to redress the balance and put sport - and the athletes - first again. The Olympic Games provides us with this opportunity. We will see performances that will go down in sports history and witness gold medals that have been earned from years of dedication, sacrifice and determination. We will see bravery and courage from athletes that will inspire a nation, and we will share in the joy of achievement and accom- plishment of athletes who have simply managed to live their dream and compete in the Greatest Sports Show on Earth. Through our quarterly newsletter Sporting Asia, we hope to set the scene for Rio 2016 and show our pride in our Asian athletes. Wishing you all a happy and successful Olympic Year 2016! Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah President, Olympic Council of Asia President, Association of National Olympic Committees Chairman, IOC Olympic Solidarity Commission SHEIKH AHMAD VISITS DUBLIN FOR MEETING WITH EOC PRESIDENT The President of ANOC, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, extremely useful and I am looking forward to holding similar visited the President of the European Olympic Committees discussions with ONOC President Mitchell, ANOCA President (EOC), Patrick Hickey, in Dublin on February 11 for a high-level Palenfo and PASO President Maglione.” meeting about supporting NOCs and their athletes during this Olympic year. The Director General of the OCA, Husain Al Musallam, also attended the discussions, along with senior executives of the Olympic Council of Ireland. Sheikh Ahmad said: “ANOC is striving to deliver an unprec- edented level of assistance and support to all the world’s NOCs. The only way we can achieve this is with the support of our five continental associations. Sheikh Ahmad with President Hickey and Captain Husain. “My discussions today with President Hickey have been Page 03 News in Pictures MALDIVES HOSTS FINA CAMP: Clinics for swimming officials in the Maldives was one of six development initiatives held by world swimming’s governing body FINA towards the end of last year. (www.fina.org) CHINESE DOUBLE IN TABLE TENNIS: Ma Long (right), the 2015 world champion, and 2015 Women's World FONG APPOINTED IWWF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: The Cup winner Liu Shiwen (left) were named male and female International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation has player of the year, respectively, at the 2015 International appointed Paul Fong from Singapore as the new Executive Table Tennis Federation Star Awards in Lisbon, Portugal. Director, effective March 1, 2016. Page 04 News in Pictures ALIBABA JOINS FIGHT FOR BOXING: The International IOC HONOUR FOR LI: Three-time world badminton Boxing Association (AIBA) has signed a Memorandum of champion and IOC Member Li Lingwei of China is one of Understanding with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba five high-profile former athletes to be appointed by IOC Sports Group to support the global development of President Thomas Bach to the World Olympians Associa- boxing. AIBA President CK Wu (right) and Alibaba founder tion Executive Committee to represent the IOC. and Chairman Jack Ma are pictured at the Olympic (http://olympians.org) Museum. (www.aiba.org) CHINESE DIVERS WIN FINA AWARD: China’s He Chao and Shi Tingmao were named FINA Athlete of the Year ITU PRESIDENT VISITS NEPAL: International Triathlon 2015 in the diving category for men and women, respec- Union President and IOC Member Marisol Casado visited tively, at the 2nd FINA World Aquatics Gala in Budapest, Nepal to oversee a schools project funded by the ITU’s Hungary, on January 31. ANOC and OCA President US$10,500 Nepal Earthquake Campaign. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah was among the VIP (www.triathlon.org) guests. (www.fina.org) Page 05 News in Pictures JUDO WINS AWARD: The International Judo Federation has won the 2015 Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al YU ZAIQING RE-ELECTED WUSHU PRESIDENT: The Maktoum Creative Sports Award in the International International Wushu Federation Congress re-elected Creative Organisation Award category for its efforts to China’s Yu Zaiqing as President for 2015-19 on the bring judo and its values to 300 children in the refugee sidelines of the 13th World Wushu Championships in camp in Kilis, Turkey, on the border with Syria. Jakarta, Indonesia. (www.iwuf.org). (www.ijf.org) FAI WELCOMES DUBAI ORGANISERS: The World Air Sports Federation (FAI) Executive Board and the organisers of the FAI World Air Games Dubai 2015, including Event Director HE Youssif Al Hammadi, held a joint meeting at the FAI HQ in Lausanne, Switzerland, on January 30 following the success of the FAI’s flagship event in December. (www.fai.org) Page 06 Obituary KAZAKHSTAN MOURNS LOSS OF POPULAR ‘TIM’ The sports movement in Kazakhstan suffered an irreparable loss on December 3, 2015, when the Vice President of the NOC, Timur Dosymbetov, passed away aged 58 after a long illness. A friendly and popular figure at local, regional and continental levels, Tim - as he liked to be known - played a major role in the establishment of the NOC in 1990 following the break-up of the Soviet Union. He was the first president of the NOC and later vice president and general secretary. He was also a key member of Almaty’s bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2022, losing narrowly to Beijing. Born in Almaty, Tim was a keen swimmer and eventually became a world-class athlete in modern pentathlon with the USSR national team. OCA President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah said Tim had been a significant influence in the rise of sport in Kazakhstan and in Central Asia and his hard work and friendly character would Timur Dosymbetov. be sadly missed in the OCA. CHEN LUYUN TUNKU ADNAN A member of China’s women’s basketball team at the 2004 The Olympic Council of Malaysia announced the passing of Athens Olympic Games, Chen Luyun, died of colon cancer on former NOC Vice President Tunku Dato’ Seri Adnan Tunku Besar December 23. She was 38. Burhanuddin on February 8. He was 89. Chen, from Xiamen in Fujian province, also represented China He was NOC VP from 1982 to 1986 and President of the Malay- in the World Junior Championship in 1997 and World Champi- sian Judo Federation for many years. He was Malaysia’s Chef onship in 2002 and led China to the Youth Olympic Games title de Mission at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, as coach. New Zealand, the 1974 Asian Games in Tehran, Iran, and the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games. MIKE SHEPHERDSON Mike Shepherdson, a dual international for Malaysia in hockey ABDUL RAHIM AHMAD and cricket and who represented the State of Selangor at Abdul Rahim Ahmad, a decorated hockey player for Malaysia in football, passed away on February 13, aged 85. the World Cup, Asian Games, SEA Games and Inter-Continental Cup, passed away on February 13. He was 59. He played hockey for Malaysia at the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games and at the Asian Games in Tokyo in 1958 and Jakarta After retiring as a player he served as vice president of the Selan- in 1962.