Bahrain’s two young swimmers stepped up their preparations yesterday for their upcoming participation at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Farhan Saleh and Fatema Almahmeed trained intensively for over two hours yesterday as they continued their plans leading up to events.
Bahrain Swimming Association board member Tareq Juma was on hand to help facilitate the practices.
They will continue with their training programme today and over the next couple of days as they hope to be in the best possible shape when they fly the Kingdom of Bahrain’s flag in Rio.
Both swimmers will be hoping to register new personal bests in their respective events.
Saleh will be the first to compete. He will be getting into the pool on Thursday for the first round of the men’s 50 metres freestyle. He will be competing in heat four, which is scheduled for a 7.08pm start, Bahrain time.
Fatema will be looking to do her best in the women’s 50 metres freestyle, which takes place on Friday at 7.02pm.
Also on Friday, Bahrain’s Mahmood Haji begins his campaign in the men’s 50 metres rifle prone qualification at 3pm while Bahrain’s star track and field athletes kick off their medal quest in the heats on the same day.
The first group of athletic participants are scheduled to arrive today, according to team officials. They will feature up to 10 athletes reaching Rio alongside team officials.
Also expected to touch down in Rio today are Bahraini shooter Mahmood Haji along with his coaching staff.
Quarters
Meanwhile, Bahrain Olympic Committee secretary general Abdulrahman Askar paid a visit to the national team’s living quarters at the Athletes’ Village in Rio.
Askar was welcomed on his visit by Bahrain’s Chef de Mission Yousef Abdulqader, who gave him a tour of the facility and an insight into the daily life of an Olympic athlete in Rio.
Bahrain is competing with its biggest-ever delegation in the Olympics, with 40 athletes qualifying and 32 of them set to get into action in four sports, athletics, swimming, shooting and wrestling.
Rio marks Bahrain’s ninth participation in the summer games. Bahrain also took part in the Olympics in Los Angeles (1984), Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and London (2012).