Thursday 25 / April / 2024
Muscat: Oman will be deprived of one international sporting event in 2017 as the fourth edition of Al Amerat Challenge has been put on hold owing to ‘traffic congestion’.
Al Amerat Challenge, organised by Excellence Performance, is the only Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) sanctioned athletic event hosted in the Sultanate and was scheduled for February.
Excellence Performance, a small company that has been striving to organise unique sports events that encourage Omani youth as well as promote the country as a tourist destination, has been hosting Al Amerat Challenge since the inaugural event in 2014, under the auspices of the Oman Athletic Association (OAA), with great success.
But the Excellence Performance team were ‘disappointed’ to be informed by the Sultanate’s athletic body of the Royal Oman Police’s decision not to let them go ahead with their plans to host the event this year.
The organisation, while quoting a statement from ROP said: “We have been informed by Oman Athletic Association that the Director General of Operations in Royal Oman Police rejected to execute (host) the race this year due to the traffic congestion that occurred while the closing Al Amerat-Bausher road to secure the race and (also) large number of complaints and reports received by Royal Oman Police from the road users expressing their discontent and dissatisfaction with the holding of traffic.”
Speaking to Times Sport on Tuesday, Excellence Performance Executive Director Rashid Ibrahim Al Kindi said: “Obviously we are very disappointed with this decision. We have worked hard for the last four years. It’s not easy to host an international sporting event with very little sponsorship and support. But we hosted the event successfully and that led to us getting the recognition from AIMS.
“We have succeeded in putting Oman on the world map of road running and distance running. We have managed to attract some of the best international athletes to Oman and also managed to promote the country internationally as a sporting and tourist destination.”
“But now we are disappointed to learn we will not be able to host the event as scheduled this year. But we have to comply by the ROP’s order,” Rashid Al Kindi added.
Al Kindi also said the reasons given are not very convincing as ‘we have not received any complaints, at least not from the residents’.
“During the last three editions, we have not received any complaints from the residents, not from those in the Bausher village which was the starting and finishing point of the race. In fact, we used to have a lot of families from the area turning up on the morning of the race... some enquiring about the spot registrations and some simply to enjoy the race,” he said.
Difficult task
Asked what the next plan of action is, Al Kindi said: “They (ROP) want us to find another route. That means we have to start all over again.
“We have to start from the scratch. We have to host an event and then prove it is successful. Then only we will be getting the international recognition and in this case the AIMS approval to get the race included in the international calendar.
“It will be a very difficult task.”
“We are very disappointed because this beautiful route was approved by AIMS and all the international athletes who took part in Al Amerat Challenge were in awe of it. In fact, we have received many emails from international athletes enquiring about this year’s race,” he said.
Al Kindi also lamented: “Now even if we find another route and find the approval, it can no more be called Al Amerat Challenge. It will be a completely new event. It will take another three years to bring the new event to the same level and reputation as Al Amerat Challenge.”
Find a better solution
The Excellence Performance chief while reiterating his organisation’s willingness to abide by the rules said: “As I said we will abide by the rules. But we will also try to find a better solution.”
“To start with we will be conducting a survey of the area. We will talk to the people and find out whether we can come up with a solution that is acceptable to one and all. We are very optimistic of finding a better solution,” Al Kindi added.
For the record, Moroccan runners dominated the 2016 Al Amerat Challenge with Sameer Al Jawareh winning the men’s race and Ameena Maheeh taking the top honours in the women’s section.
