Kuwait City, Kuwait, June 3, 2022: The Olympic Council of Asia Phase Three Development Programme for coaches and referees from 12 National Olympic Committees in West Asia will get underway on Saturday, June 4 at the OCA Headquarters in Salmiya.
Three sports – athletics, basketball and table tennis - will figure in the latest instalment from the OCA targeting coaches and referees, and following on the successful completion of the first two phases in six different sports for West Asian NOCs at the end of March.
“We took a break due to Ramadan in April, and the Gulf Games which have just ended in Kuwait. This is the third phase, and by no means will it be the last, as the feedback the OCA has received from the NOCs after the first two phases is positive with everyone agreeing that they have benefited from it,” revealed Tony Tarraf, OCA Head of Athletes Development Department and Special Projects.
The 12 NOCs once again participating are the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries that took part in the Gulf Games which ended on May 31 – Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia – plus Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen.
A total of more than 150 coaches and referees, 111 from overseas and around 40 from Kuwait will be involved in the June 4-9 programme which will include both theory and practical sessions. The OCA is also expecting a heavy online interest from NOCs from the rest of Asia.
“We will most definitely be expanding the programme to the rest of Asia. We started this as a pilot project and with success, the Director General of the Olympic Council of Asia, Mr. Husain Al-Musallam has already confirmed that we will be taking this programme to other regions in Asia soon,” Tarraf noted.
He added: “Already we are reaping the benefits. The Lebanon NOC has informed me that they will be conducting seminars for volleyball coaches and referees in the summer, with the participants at our programme passing on the knowledge they learned.”
Both international and Asian coaches and referees will be involved in Phase Three, among them Serbian coach Milan Kotarec, who is an alumni of the World Association of Basketball Coaches, and Ms. Rachel Ramos of the Philippines who will be the referees instructor in table tennis.
“We have got a good panel of experts in both coaching and refereeing across all three sports. I expect this programme to be fruitful and helpful to all the participants,” Tarraf concluded.
The first two phases, in six sports, were for handball, swimming, volleyball, judo, football and gymnastics.