By Abdellatif Sharaa
KUWAIT: Kuwait Special Olympics held an athletics competition for the mentally challenged under the patronage of the Public Authority for Sport (PAS), with 67 athletes representing 14 different clubs, schools and establishments over two days at Kuwait athletics club's track. Competitions of the closing day were held in the presence of Deputy Director General of PAS for sports for all sectors Hamid Al-Hazeem, Chairwoman of Kuwait Special Olympics Hanaa Al-Zawawi, Deputy Chairwoman of Tomooh Club Huda Al-Khaldi, Secretary Sadeeqa Al-Ansari and board member Fahad Al-Sahly.
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Hazeem appreciated the organization and technical level of the events, as well as the efforts of Kuwait Special Olympics to improve the sports level of the mentally challenged in all competitions, as this expanded the base of participants who had many achievements regionally and internationally. Zawawi said the Special Olympics is keen on organizing such events to give children the opportunity to practice sports and discover outstanding athletes to include them in the national team and prepare them for participating in the world games to be held in Berlin in June.
The competitions were held according to international rules using the Game Management System (GMS) for the first time in running the competition and athlete rankings, as well as results of the 50m and 100m races and shotput for men and women. In the 50m men's race, first place went to Hussein Karam from Kuwait Educational Academy, Yousuf Al-Joudar from Guidance Education Establishment and Abdelaziz Nasrallah from Al-Resalah School. The women's race was won by Noor Al-Ibrahim from Kuwait Society and Ahmadi and Ayat Al-Tulaibi from Integrated Care Establishment.
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In the 100m women's race, Mariam Al-Hindi from Tomooh club won. In the 100m men's race, Ziyad Al-Maatouq from Kuwait Academy, Nasser Al-Hashimi and Mohammad Al-Hinnawi from Tomooh Club won. Shotput women: Zahraa Sarkhouh from Al-Ikhlas Establishment and Ayesha Mahdy from Integrated Care Establishment won. Shotput men: Mejib Mejib and Othman Yaqoub from Autism Center, Ali Dashti from Al-Resalah School and Ali Al-Shirazi from Integrated Care won.