?The second and penultimate day of the 56th ICHPER.SD Anniversary World Congress and Exposition, being held in the Kingdom of Bahrain, focused on the conference all-new theme “Towards Building a New Sport System”.
The conference is being organized by the Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) in partnership with the International Council for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sports and Dance (ICHPER.SD) and the University of Bahrain (UoB).
Speaking at yesterday’s (Friday, December 18) opening session at the Crown Plaza Hotel, honorary president of ICHPER.SD Dr Dong Ja Yang said the theme encapsulates the great purpose of the conference, which concludes today.
“This represents a true challenge to bring it all together – ICHPER professionals, institutions and organizations throughout the world, for reexamining and sharing our current dimensions of beliefs, knowledge and wisdom to build new direction for the future through the process of this world congress,” said Dr Yang.
“It is my very special pleasure to deliver this keynote with the topic ‘a sustainable Olympic movement for all nations – a celebration not only for the countries of the haves but also for countries of the have-nots”.
Dr Yang started his keynote by thanking Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa for patronizing this event.
He also extended his appreciation and gratitude to BOC general secretary and chairman of the Executive Committee of the conference Abdulrahman Askar and to all the organizing committee members on their efforts in preparing for this international forum.
Late on, Askar presented special awards for Dr Yang and other main speakers in appreciation to their contributions to the conference.
They are ICHPER president Dr Adel El Nashar, Dr Li Li Ji School of Kinesiology Director of the US, Dr Yoshiro Hatana of Japan, BOC board member Shaikha Hayat bint Abdulaziz Al Khalifa, Education Ministry’s Dr Shaikha Al Jeeb, ICHPER general secretary Dr Magda Al Shazly and Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Creativity Award winner Dr Mervat Disouqi.
Yesterday’s programme also featured a fitness session by Dr Yoshiro Hatana, creator of the 10,000 steps theory.
Hatana said he was pleased with the arrangements made by the organizing committee to bring this international conference to Bahrain for the first time.
“I really appreciate the Olympic committee here in Bahrain in supporting the world movement of physical education, fitness and sports. For this matter, Bahrain should be proud of this fact that we have come from all over the world to exchange ideas and knowledge,” he said.
“I have been to 15 different conferences before and have been telling people how important for a person to be able to walk as much as 10,000 steps a day in order to sustain good health and fitness,” added Dr Hatana, who is now heading ICHPER.SD research project on physical fitness testing on children all over the world.
Romanian sport manager Alexandru Paraschiveschu, also making his first trip to Bahrain, was pleased with the organization of the conference and shared his experience in the same field.
“In Romania, the ministry of youth and sports is the No. 1 organisation which is responsible for the implementation of sporting events and managing all programmes, in cooperation with the Romania Olympic Committee,” said Paraschiveschu.
“In my opinion, we should focus on children, to select young talents and improve on their performances before making them eligible to represent the national teams in a variety of sports”.