?The Kingdom of Bahrain yesterday (Tuesday) celebrated its National Sports Day 2018 across its four governorates with tens of thousands of citizens and residents from all segments of the society participated in many types of sports.
The event, which falls on the second Tuesday of every February, was a day of sports and other fun activities to promote the benefits of an active healthy lifestyle.
During the Sport Day, staged for the second successive year, all of Bahrain’s institutions participated in this sport event and the country was transformed into a large green playground.
More than 250 activities were held in different parts of the country, with the main programmes running at the sports village in Isa Town Sports City, located behind the National Stadium in Riffa, in an attempt to promote awareness among people to exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Among various type of sports programmes organised by different ministries, private institutions and Bahrain’s governorates were athletics, martial arts, football, basketball, mind sports, triathlon, table tennis, cycling and taekwondo.
The Sports Day also featured a first-of-its-kind ‘Fun Run’ event at the sports village, which was organised in cooperation with the Olympic Council of Asia to promote the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta-Palembang, from August 18 to September 2.
Hundreds of adults and schoolchildren took part in the Fun Run programme, which is a dedicated OCA social sports development and promotion program that is held among 45 Asian National Olympic Councils.
At the end of the activities, Bahrain Olympic Committee general secretary and organising committee chairman Abdulrahman Askar and minister of Youth and Sports Affairs Hisham Al Jowder presented awards to representatives of ministries, companies, governorates and contributors in appreciation to their efforts in making this year’s edition of the Bahrain Sports Day an all-round success.
Askar took this opportunity to thank His Royal Highness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa for his directives to allocate half of the workday for the activities, which reflects His Highness’ approach to encourage all members of Bahraini society to exercise to be a daily lifestyle.
The BOC general secretary also expressed gratitude to Shaikh Nasser in Hamad Al Khalifa, representative of His Majesty for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman and BOC president, for his directives to bring different type of sports activities on this special day.
