JEDDAH, 11 June 2007 — Six Saudis were unanimously nominated for memberships in the OCA (Olympic Council of Asia) Standing Committees during the 50th OCA executive board meeting held in Almaty, Kazakhstan recebntlty. OCA Presidnet Sheikh Ahmad Al-Sabah chaired the meeting.
The nominated members are to serve for the term 2007 to 2011. The six Saudis nominated were Hadi Souan in the Athletes Committee (ATC), Mohammad Abu Omair in the Culture and Education Committee (C&EC), Tilal Al-Sheikh in the Media Committee (MEC), Dr. Mohammad Saleh Al-Konbaz in Medical Committee (MC), Abdullah Al-Meaily in the Sports for All Committee (SAC), and Dr. Rashed Al-Heraiwel in the Sports and Environment Committee (S&EC).
“To be honest I did not see this coming and did not expect it so soon,” Souan told Arab News. “I just announced my retirement from playing athletics after the 15th Asian Games and offers started to come,” he said. Souan then said he was glad with the membership and the people who recommended and had faith in him, which enabled him to win the seat at the athletes committee. “I’ll try my best to earn their trust.”
Souan was the first to clinch an Olympic silver medal for Saudi Arabia, during the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 400-meter hurdles event. He was also nominated to become a member at the Saudi Athletics Federation’s administration council.
Among other issues tackled during the meeting, the OCA approved the amended logo for the 1st Asian Beach Games, thanked the NOC of Qatar and Thailand for their offer to be the replacement NOCs for hosting the Asian Games should the City allotted to host the Asian Games is unable to do so due to unavoidable circumstances and approved to grant the NOC of Palestine a grant-in-aid of $10,000 to rebuild the sports venues devastated by war.
