?The fifth edition of the GCC Women’s Games is all set to commence today (Tuesday, March 7) in Doha.
Around 891 athletes and technical teams, representing four Gulf countries – Bahrain, Oman, UAE and the host country, Qatar, are lined up for the 11-day sporting event, scheduled to conclude on March 17 with the closing ceremony.
The GCC female athletes will participate in 10 games: basketball, handball, table tennis, volleyball, chess, athletics, shooting, fencing, taekwondo and bowling.
Today’s opening ceremony, which tips off at 7.30pm, will take place at Khalifa Tennis and Squash Complex under the auspices of HE Sheikha Hind bin Hamad Al Thani.
Meanwhile, the last batch of the Bahrain delegation to the games arrived in Doha yesterday. The handball, volleyball and fencing teams headed for to their respective courts for their inaugural training sessions.
Bahrain is competing in nine games as they look forward to become the overall winners of the games for the third consecutive time, having captured the title in the third and fourth editions held in Bahrain (2013) and Muscat (2015), respectively.
The nationals dominated the previous edition Games winning 33 medals in total, including 22 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze.
The nationals will take part in athletics, taekwondo, bowling, shooting, volleyball, basketball, handball, fencing and table tennis.
Supreme Council for Youth and Sports Deputy General Secretary and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) board member and Women’s Sport Committee chairwoman Shaikha Hayat bint Abdulaziz Al Khalifa heading the Bahraini delegation to Doha games.
The Bahrain administrative delegation also includes Maryam Mirza, Mohammed Al Zayed, Maryam Mardana, Shareed Mohammed, Mohammed Al Rumaili and Hasan Ali.
Shaikha arrived in Doha on Sunday and will be attending the GCC Women’s Organising Committee meeting today, to be held on the sidelines of the Fifth GCC Women’s Games.