On September 19, 2017 The Olympic Council of Asia held their 70th Executive Board meeting at the Olympia Hotel in Ashgabat.
The OCA President, Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah, welcomed the members to the capital city of Turkmenistan on the occasion of the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games and ahead of the OCA General Assembly meeting which took place on 20th of September.
“I am honoured to be here with the sports family from Asia and Oceania, the International Olympic Committee, International Federations, Asian Federations and other members of the sports society,” said Sheikh Ahmad. “I express my gratitude and thanks to the President of Turkmenistan, His Excellency Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the government, National Olympic Committee and the citizens for the warm welcome and support, which makes all of us proud.”
Sheikh Ahmad added that the athletes from Asia and Oceania were joined together to compete for the first time in Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games. He expressed satisfaction that refugee team in these games have reached the final stage and achieve medal with their best performance. Sheikh Ahmad hoped that this exercise started by the IOC in Rio becomes a tradition to show Asian solidarity for the future.
OCA Coordination Committee Chairman Mr. Tsunekazu Takeda said that the OCA Executive Board had finalized the sports program of 40 sports and 462 events for the 18th Asian Games which will take place from August 18 to September 2, 2018 in Indonesia. 9,500 athletes and 5,500 team officials from the OCA’s 45 National Olympic Committees will participate in the Games.
Asian Games Organizing Committee from Jakarta – Palembang 2018 and Hangzhou 2022 present their progress report.
The Executive Board meeting approved all reports of Vice President and Standing Committee and thanks for AIMAG offer such wonderful and state-of-art facilities to Asian and Oceania athletes by creating truly clean and environmental games. The next Executive Board meeting will be held in Sri Lanka on a date to be finalized.
On September 20, 2017 the 36th session of the General Assembly of the Olympic Council of Asia was held in Ashgabat. Speaking at the assembly, OCA President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah noted the excellent organization of the Games “Ashgabat 2017” is being held in these days in the capital of Turkmenistan, a high level of sports facilities of the Olympic town. It was stressed that the holding of a large-scale sporting event, which gathered representatives of Asia and Oceania in Ashgabat, became proclaimer of constructive partnership, goodwill and good-neighborliness.
The representatives of the National Olympic Committees of Asia and Oceania, participating in the meeting, reported on the results of the work on popularization and development of sports in their countries. The meeting also hosted presentations of the Asian Games scheduled for the coming years in various countries.
