Tuesday, August 19, 2008

more on Palestinian Olympians

Courtesy Kibbush. Below is an excerpt, but read the entire post (articles from China Daily and Ma'an News Agency.)

The [Palestinian] team spent 30 days at a sports camp in China where they received training from Chinese coaches. While the coaches say that the Palestinian team is talented, they lamented a lack of sports facilities and training opportunities in Palestine.

Hamza Abdu trains in a 25-meter pool, half the length of an Olympic pool.

`There aren’t any Olympic-size swimming pools in Palestine and the ones that are available here are just summer swimming pools and small ones, and Palestinian swimmers are training in these inadequate pools. In addition, their trainers aren’t of a high enough standard,` said Palestinian sports exert Omar Al-Jafari, who works for Ma`an News Agency in Bethlehem.

`Regarding the runners I can say that unfortunately there aren’t any full-size tracks for them to run into in all of Palestine, and runners just train in any place that they find suitable to run, sometimes in streets crowded with cars,` added Al-Jafari.

Ghadir Al-Ghrouf, the sprinter from Jericho, trains on a dirt track. Nader Al-Masri, the Gazan who plans to compete in the 5km running event, trains by jogging halfway down the 40km Gaza Strip.

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