QNA
The Islamic Solidarity Games in its fifth edition hosted by the Turkish city of Konya from August 9 to 18, will officially kickoff tomorrow.
Around 6,000 athletes from 56 countries will participate in the tournament, which includes 27 different sports: handball, volleyball, basketball (3X3), football, aerobic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, archery, athletics, road cycling, track cycling, bocce and traditional Turkish archery, wrestling, weightlifting, judo, karate, kickboxing, table tennis, bow and arrow, rhythmic gymnastics, taekwondo, in addition to athletics, swimming and Paralympic table tennis.
Qatar will be represented in the fifth Islamic Solidarity Games by 117 athletes in 14 teams and individual games under 11 federations: the Qatar Basketball Federation, the Volleyball Association, the Handball Association, the Cycling and Triathlon Federation, the Athletics Federation, the Swimming Association, the Shooting and Archery Association, the Taekwondo, Judo and Karate Federation, the Boxing and Wrestling Federation, the Fencing Federation, and the Gymnastics Federation.
The handball and athletics teams will make the first Qatari appearance in this years tournament, whilst other teams prepare for their coming tournaments in the days that follow, amid great hopes and ambitions to reap the largest number of medals.
Qatar participated in the first edition of the Islamic Solidarity Games (Makkah Al Mukarramah 2005) in karate, fencing, weightlifting, equestrian, swimming and goalball for the blind, and won a gold medal in taekwondo competitions.
As for its participation in the Palembang 2013 edition, Qatar competed in athletics, volleyball, karate and archery, taekwondo, beach volleyball and basketball and won five medals (one gold, two silvers and two bronze medals).
Additionally, Qatars participation in the Baku 2017 edition was in volleyball, basketball (3X3), athletics, swimming, shooting, tennis, table tennis, and weightlifting, in addition to taekwondo, judo, karate, athletics for people with disabilities, wrestling, boxing and gymnastics, winning 12 medals (two gold, three silver, and seven bronze).
The Islamic Solidarity Games are held every four years and are supervised by the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation. The first edition was held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2005, with 54 Islamic member states in the federation participating in the following games: athletics, swimming, diving, water polo, fencing, tennis, table tennis, weightlifting, football, basketball, volleyball, handball, taekwondo, karate, equestrian, football pentathlon for people with intellectual disabilities, and goalball for people with visual disabilities.
The second edition, however, was scheduled to be held in Iran in 2009, but was canceled, whilst the third edition was hosted by Indonesia in 2013, in which 39 Islamic countries participated in 13 competitions: athletics, swimming, archery, badminton, basketball, football, karate, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, beach volleyball, weightlifting, and wushu.
The fourth edition was held in Azerbaijan in 2017 with the participation of 54 countries in 20 different games: athletics, games for people with disabilities, diving, swimming, water polo, basketball (3X3), football, gymnastics, table tennis, handball, judo, wrestling, shooting, tennis, volleyball, boxing, karate, taekwondo, weightlifting, and judo for the blind.
Moreover, this edition of the tournament was originally scheduled to take place from August 20 to 29, 2021, but the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation decided to postpone it to take place on August 9-18 2022 due to the health situation at the time due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the federations keenness on the participation of all member states.