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Saudi Arabia plans to send a female equestrian team to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London to avoid being barred from taking part in the competitions, Saudi media sources reported on Thursday. Saudi Arabia always sent exclusively male teams to Olympic Games as the kingdom restricts the participation of women in sports and doesn't allow them to participate in Olympic Games. Anita DeFrantz, chair of the International Olympic Committee's Women and Sports Commission, had warned Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei in June 2010 that they could be barred from the 2012 Olympics if they don't send in female athletes for the first time. Qatar agreed to include women in its 2012 Olympic delegation, increasing pressure on its conservative Muslim neighbor, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s al-Shorouq reported that the Kingdom is likely to participate in the Olympics with equestrienne Dalma Rushdi Malhas, 18, who took part in several international competitions and won a bronze medal in...

Saudi Arabia has agreed to let one female athlete join their all-male delegation to the 2012 Olympics in a bid to block threats to bar them from the games if they didn’t let women participate. The move came after a warning last year by Anita DeFrantz , who heads the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Women and Sports Commission, that any country that didn’t allow female athletes to compete would be barred from the global competition. With 35 weeks to go before the games begin in London, the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee has announced that woman can join the team, but with the caveat that they be living abroad . Saudi Arabia has never sent a woman to the Olympics and the kingdom forbids women from participating in sports in state-run schools . There is also no federation that organizes women’s sports. “[If] some of the female athletes who are living in Europe qualify to the Olympics through international federations or IOC, then we will step in to support them,” an o...

By Doug Gillon Al Salam Aleikum. Good morning, brother and sister journalists. It is an honour to be with you here at the XIIth Pan Arab Games, and a privilege to be invited to help with this International Association of Athletics Federations media development project which we hope will assist you to broaden and improve the way in which track and field athletics is covered. And we should thank the IAAF for making this possible, and in particular, organiser Anna Legnani whom we hope will join us shortly. So, why am I here? My credentials include nearly 44 years as a sports writer, covering some 60 sports in more than 40 countries - 10 Olympics, 10 World Championships, 10 Commonwealth Games, the English-speaking equivalent of the Pan Arab Games which you are here to report. My paper, The Herald, is the oldest in continuous daily production in the English language. I have made my share of mistakes - and hopefully have learned from these. But I am honoured to have won a number of ...

Qatar Olympic and Sport Museum to be completed in 2014 Anti-doping Laboratory Qatar (ADlQ) will open in 2015 Doha: Qatar Olympic and Sport Museum built inside the Khalifa Stadium as part of its refurbishment will be completed in 2014 while the Anti-doping Laboratory Qatar (ADlQ) will open will open a year latter informed Abdulla Al Mulla,   the official spokesman of the Arab Games 2011 and Media & Broadcasting Director .   “ The 10,000 m2 Anti-doping Laboratory Qatar will cater to athletes throughout the Gulf region and the whole West Asia,” said Mulla . The Arab Games Organising Committee (AGOC) official was speaking on the topic ‘the Qatar Sports Vision’ during the first day of the two-day IAAF media seminar ‘Sports in Qatar and the Coverage of Athletics’ at the Arab Games Doha 2011 . Mulla said   Qatar’s successful track record of hosting major sporting events has been able to draw the attention of the entire sporting world and the ‘trust and solid foundati...

Armstrong Vas Doha:  Social Media as a means of communication has proved to be an effective catalyst for change in many Arab countries this year. A new generation of techno-savvy Arab youth is keen to harness the immense potential of Social Media and integrate it into various fields, including sports. Meet Fadi Khater, a young man with plenty of ideas. Khater designed www.netizency.com which began operations this year. Khater’s aim is to help Qatar create a pool of passionate sports fans and promote the local sports events to the world utilising social channels. Netizency is a Qatari Company specializing in social brand building and is participating in the ongoing four-day Aspire4Sport 2011 business and sports exhibition. Powerful, does not begin to describe the impact Social Media has made on our world. Even in its relative infancy, it has already proved itself to be an effective tool in sports to boost fan interaction, forge connections between teams and leagues and their fans, ...

Former world number one goes vegetarian to fight autoimmune disease; dreams to get top spot in rankings BY ARMSTRONG VAS DOHA:  Former world number one Venus Williams has gone vegetarian as she bids for wins in 2012 season. The 31-year-old also said she has no immediate plans of retiring from the sport that has made her a household name in the world of tennis. The seven-time Grand Slam champion has changed her diet as she bids to ward off the autoimmune disease called Sjogren’s Syndromem a condition that causes fatigue and joint pain. The older of Williams’s sister was forced to pull out of her scheduled second-round match against rising German Sabine Lisicki at this year’s US Open on account of the autoimmune disease. “I changed my diet completely, so lots of vegetables. I am confident of lasting the full schedule, I am working to get back to shape. I am not stranger to sacrifice. The last few months have been hard on my health, but I have made drastic changes in my life style, I...