The Supreme Organizing Committee of the Saudi Arabian First Games has announced that the largest national sporting event will be held between October 27 and November 7, 2022 AD; After it was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic at the end of March 2020.
On this occasion, His Highness the Minister for Sports and Chairman of the Olympic and Paralympic Committees, His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal, thanked the wise leadership for their unrestricted support for the sports sector, emphasizing that the Saudi Games are a new turning point in the history of Saudi sports and the government’s interest in sports sector.
Minister of Sports: The purpose of the tournament is the birth of new champions
His Highness said: “The Saudi Games were announced over two years ago and have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, which we have successfully overcome – praise God – with the grace of God, and then the government, which has put ‘the people first.’ , until today we are here without any restrictions and have returned to our normal lives.
He added, “Because this is the first time this event is being held in the Kingdom, we have revised the previous mechanism in which the competition was limited to (13) regions, and after several workshops that were held with sports federations, we found that it would be difficult for a large number of regions to compete, because there are no official organizations. It controls the recruitment and training of players, so we came to the conclusion that the best way to achieve our goals set in this big event is to have a competition between sports clubs that will represent all regions and cities of our beloved kingdom .This has been achieved through a strategy to support clubs entering their fourth year with great success, and this change we are announcing today will also be a great reason for our sports clubs to pay more attention to the level of different games.”
His Highness the Minister for Sports emphasized that the main goal of the Saudi Arabian Games is to produce new champions through the Elite Athletes Program, which was announced less than a year ago to identify new talent admitted to the program, and is committed to providing these funds to achieve global and continental platforms – God willing.
The committee announced a change to the participation mechanism for the tournament, which will be held in the capital Riyadh, so that the competition will be played between clubs instead of the previously announced regional system, as more than 200 people will participate in the session. clubs competing in 45 individual and group sports, including five sports designated as Paralympic sports.
In addition to the medals awarded, the athletes participating in the tournament will compete for the highest prizes in the history of the region, totaling more than 200 million rials. As for the individual competitions, the value of the medals will be the same as following the team competitions.
To enable amateurs and individuals to participate, Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee competitions in selected sports will be available to them as tryout registrations begin on July 31st and run until August 7th. trials will begin from August 15 to September 10 in 22 different sports according to a schedule to be published later.
In its first edition, the course aims to increase the number of sports practitioners in the Kingdom and open up a new generation of champions in sports. The Saudi Games are associated with an elite sports program which aims to identify sports champions through program scouts who will follow the course of the course to choose future champions and sponsor them to become Olympic champions. The course aims to improve the Kingdom’s ability to organize major sporting events in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
Through the contributions of various sports federations, the course aims to increase the popularity of various games in the Kingdom and create an ideal sports environment for competition between athletes in various sports.