Lebanese athletes face challenges and difficult circumstances in their country and look to the future through their participation in the third Asian Youth Games in Bahrain.
The ambitions of winning medals in this edition may not be high, but the gains from participation are many and contribute to the development of these young athletes.
Lebanon is participating in this tournament with a delegation that includes 20 athletes, 12 young men and 8 young women, competing in 10 sports: table tennis, swimming, Muay Thai, judo, boxing, triathlon, weightlifting, tic-ball, camel, and golf.
The head of the Lebanese delegation to the Bahrain tournament, Wassim Ismail, told Olympic Council of Asia journalists: Our goal is the participation of young athletes, first to raise the flag of Lebanon, and in the event of winning any medal, we will have raised the flag in the championships of our young men and women, and secondly to interact with other players, as Lebanon cannot be absent from this tournament.
Lebanon did not win any medal in the previous two editions of the Asian Youth Games in Singapore 2009 and Nanjing 2013.
Ismail continued: In some participating countries, even young people reach the level of professionalism, and therefore the interaction of our players with them will give them great experience that will help them develop and achieve results later.
The head of the mission spoke about some of the difficult circumstances that faced the preparations of the Lebanese athletes, especially the promising young woman Bisan Sheri in the table tennis game.
It is clear in this regard: Besan Cheri was ranked first in the world in her age group, but in light of the circumstances that Lebanon went through during the war, she remained for a long period that extended to months without training. A number of athletes stayed away from training for a while, but they resumed their activities later, and today they are participating in this course.
He expressed his hope for the emergence of Lebanese champions in the future, saying: We have a group of talents, and we are following them up with their relevant federations and their families. We are trying to involve them regionally, Arably, and Asianly to gain experience, and we hope that we will have champions in the future. These talents need weight, and therefore we always communicate with sports federations to follow up on these young athletes, and hence the importance of this participation.
