Kuwait is ready to host the 3rd Gulf Cooperation Council Games
7 May 2022
Kuwait is ready to host the 3rd Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Games, which are scheduled to be held from May 13 to May 31, 2022. The opening ceremony is set to take place on Sunday, May 22. This is Kuwait’s first time hosting the Games, the regional multi-sport event that involves participants from the Gulf Cooperation Council region. The GCC Games is a quadrennial multi-sport event that was established by the union and was first held in Bahrain in 2011.
This edition of the GCC Games was originally scheduled for April 2020, but attempts to hold the event have been hampered by the pandemic. Six countries — Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and host Kuwait — will take part in this edition. A total of more than 1,500 athletes and 500 officials will participate in 16 sports, including handball, athletics, basketball (5×5 and 3×3), cycling, e-sports, futsal, fencing, handball, ice hockey, judo, karate, padel, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, and volleyball.
The handball event, which will be only for the men’s teams, will take place at Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah Indoor Sports Halls Complex in the Sabah Al-Salem area of Mubarak Al-Kabeer Governorate from May 25 to May 31, 2022, with hosts Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates participating in the event.
Handball has been featured at every edition of the GCC Games since its inaugural edition in Bahrain in 2011. Saudi Arabia claimed a gold medal in the previous edition, back in 2015, when they hosted the event in Dammam.
Female athletes will compete for the first time at the GCC Games in this edition. The six sports involving female athletes are athletics, basketball (3×3), cycling, futsal, e-sports, and padel. This is the biggest sporting event to be hosted by Kuwait and for the first time in the history of the GCC Games.
Photo courtesy: Kuwait Olympic Committee
