\n
\nIt seems that barely a week goes by without the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee adding yet another sporting federation to its rapidly expanding portfolio.<\/p>\n
\nThe latest sport to be given a major boost is field hockey, and leading the campaign to raise awareness about it is Mohammed Al-Mandeel, president of the Saudi Hockey Federation.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI have (a) passion for different areas in sport so I became Saudi Hockey Federation president for many reasons,\u201d he told Arab News at a training camp set up by the body. \u201cOne of them is that I used to play this game when I was a student, and inshallah I\u2019m planning to transfer my knowledge here to make it one of the more popular sports (in Saudi Arabia).\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAl-Mandeel graduated with a degree in telecommunications engineering from Cranfield University in the UK, and assumed his role as head of the federation at the start of 2020, though official affiliation to the Asian Hockey Federation did not come until 2021.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cField hockey is one of the biggest, oldest historical sports in the world, and also a major Olympic sport,\u201d he said, before highlighting its history including that 4000-year-old inscriptions from ancient Egypt seem to depict a sport similar to hockey.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhen you have a new thing in society there will be resistance, so part of our strategy is to raise awareness, to let people know about this sport,\u201d he said. \u201cFootball, basketball and volleyball all have an established audience, but hockey is considered a new challenge, and for people who like to try something new our federation is setting up new training programs for beginners who want to try this sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIt is not only in Europe and Southeast Asia that hockey is popular, it already has a following in several Middle Eastern countries.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe top Arab country in this sport is Egypt while in the Gulf it\u2019s Oman. They have a lot of good players, and we already have partnerships with them to have their knowledge transferred here to Saudi,\u201d Al-Mandeel said.<\/p>\n
\nA strategy to raise the profile of the game is already in place.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe have different channels (to promote hockey),\u201d said Al-Mandeel. \u201cIn digital media, we have Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and we have our official website. And through small pop-up events, we are spreading new ideas to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe federation\u2019s website is already open for people wishing to register for training programs. Al-Mandeel\u2019s long-term ambitions are far more lofty.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cMy (aim) is to have a Saudi team in the top three in the Olympics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\nA member of the federation\u2019s board of directors, Abdullah Sulaiman Al-Sayari, laid out the strategy to attract youngsters to hockey in a country were three or four major sports attract most of the attention.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe made a plan to reach out to schools (by) nominating three schools in Riyadh, three in Jeddah and three in the Eastern region, and started working with them to transform these schools into hockey academies for their students or other children in the area,\u201d said Al-Sayari.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cSo far we are working with Al-Arkam Schools in Riyadh, with a huge number of students. We want to invest in kids, as it\u2019s a new game and it\u2019s hard to attract new players as they have other hobbies an\u00a0interests in different sports,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we are allowing them to attend training sessions of some big clubs to let them know that they can reach their level and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAl-Sayari was also keen to highlight the support of the government in promoting the sport.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe faced a lot of challenges in this sport, such as the availability of suitable playgrounds, availability of suitable tools, and coaches (and) referees,\u201d he said. \u201cTo be honest, the number is too small but we are currently working on that. We are also working on many championships, especially at school level, which will have one very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAl-Sayari also revealed that the federation is working on establishing a Gulf region championship in December 2022, having already reached out to willing neighboring countries. They are currently working on a location and budget, he said.<\/p>\n
\nBut growing the game and increasing the number of participants is a long-term project with plenty of challenges for Al-Sayari and his colleagues.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe are trying our best to overcome these obstacles,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, taking into consideration that the federation is new and hasn\u2019t even completed one year yet, we have established five championships in which four to five teams have participated from different regions in the Kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe game has started to grow, and we also have a female team now and we are working on expanding it,\u201d Al-Sayari added. \u201cAs for the men\u2019s teams, we have already reached the maximum number of players we planned for, but the challenge here is finding suitable coaches to support coach Ahmed Abdo (technical director of the federation).\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cCurrently we have four other assistant coaches who are being trained and also working on training some teachers in the schools to become coaches in the future. We are trying our best to overcome all of these obstacles and hoping by the end of this year to reach at least 40 to 50 percent of our plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nParticipation is coming from unexpected sources.<\/p>\n
\nAdwa Al-Hunaidi and her daughter Meshael have been taking part in the sessions since they discovered they were open to females.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cMeshael initiated the idea of joining the field hockey program because she was the one who was interested,\u201d said Adwa.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cTo start with, what we had in mind when we first came was to enroll my son Yousef, that\u2019s when we found out that girls can join too. And the coach made it clear to us that mothers (and) adults can join too,\u201d said Adwa.<\/p>\n
\nShe said they were really \u201cexcited\u201d and now all three of them have joined up. \u201cWe really loved the idea since we have always been fond of sports.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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