RIYADH, 19 March 2004 — The secretariat of the First Islamic Solidarity Games to be held in the Kingdom next year said the deadline for preliminary submission of entries has been set for April 8. The secretariat chief, Abdullah Sahali, said they expect to receive entry forms from the 57 OIC countries on or before the deadline.
Invitations have earlier been dispatched through the respective National Olympic Committees. "We're going well so far," Sahali told Arab News in an interview. The member countries in the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation are subdivided into Arab (20), French-speaking (14) and English-speaking (23) countries.
Carrying national colors will be 8,000 athletes who are to pit their skills in 14 events namely athletics, swimming, diving, water polo, basketball, fencing, football, handball table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting and karate. The competition venues for the games scheduled April 8 to 20 will be in Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah and Taif.
