?Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa has directed to organize the fifth edition of the School Mini Olympics from March 8 to 22.
The 2018 School Mini Olympics is organized by the Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, with students from 38 government and private schools are expected to compete in a variety of sports.
There will be 22 sports events lined up this year, including football, 3×3 basketball, volleyball, handball, cricket, hockey, athletics, swimming, open water swimming, aquathlon and sailing.
The remaining sports are cycling, fencing, gymnastics, tennis, table tennis, badminton, taekwondo, jiu jitsu, judo, karate and karting.
Shaikh Nasser, the personal representative of His Majesty King Hamad for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman and BOC president, stressed the importance of this event in presenting new talents in different sports, and to promote friendship environment among young participants of Bahrain’s schools.
He noted that the true value of the Mini Olympics is to create the future heroes of Bahrain as they represent their nation at various regional, continental and Olympic competitions, and instilling the Olympic values.
Shaikh Nasser also said the event will undoubtedly lead to early talent discovery, and to use their potential in the right direction, to create opportunities for competition, prove their abilities and develop the spirit of sport, thus contributing to the development of school sports.
Shaikh Nasser pointed out that the remarkable increase in the number of games and participants from government and private schools reflects the great successes achieved by the Mini Olympics in the past editions.
He praised the fruitful partnership between the Bahrain Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Education, based on the keenness of the two sides to discover promising talents.
The Mini Olympics aims to spread and promote the Olympic values, ideals and principles among government and private schools in the Kingdom, and motivate them to exercise and follow a healthy life style, as well as boosting community partnership with relevant authorities.
Among main objectives of this event is to discover promising sports talent, build a solid foundation and involve them in competitive sporting activities organized by sports clubs and associations. It also aims to establish competitive sports activities organized at the school.