KUWAIT: President of the Arab and Kuwait Shooting Federations, Chairman of Kuwait Shooting Sport Club reiterated that the KSSC will not participate in Rio de Janeiro, 2016 Olympics under the Olympic flag. Engineer Duaij Khalaf Al-Otaibi chaired the extraordinary meeting of the general assembly Tuesday evening at Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Complex, to discuss amendments on its statutes. Shooters Khalid Al-Mudhaf and Ahmad Al-Fasi qualified for the Brazil 2016 Olympics.

He said “we are unaware of the decision to suspend activities, but I once again confirm that KSSC will not participate under the Olympic flag. He said what took place in Guangzhou in 2010 will not be repeated in Rio. When asked about the Asian Championship to be held in a few days, Al-Otaibi said if the IOC applies its decision and prevents us from hosting the championship “then we will take the IOC to court, preparations have been going on for a long time and cost us large amount of money, while representatives of 40 countries are already in Kuwait, so they will be responsible for any damage that may affect us, and we will not let them hurt the reputation of Kuwait.

Eng. Al-Otaibi found it strange for the IOC to suspend Kuwait Sport activity claiming government interference in sports. He said “our laws agree with the international ones and the Olympic charter, and our wise government does not interfere in sports affairs. Our government gave us lots of moral support, and the achievements of Kuwait shooting in various championships would not have been achieved without the major support of our government and political leadership that pays great attention to sports”.

Al-Otaibi said that the government built the largest shooting complex in the world as a gift to our athletes, which is Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Complex. He said there are many countries in the region where their clubs do not have democratic elections, and despite that we did not hear that IOC has done anything about them, but our problem here in Kuwait is “from us”, as there are those who are conspiring against the sports of their country and relay everything to IOC. Engineer Duaij Al-Otaibi opened the extraordinary general assembly by welcoming general assembly members then discussed the amendments on the statutes which were approved unanimously.

By Abdellatif Sharaa