OCA work hard to give more delegations winning chances

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) is working hard to help more countries and regions to win medals or even gold at an Asian Winter Games, said an OCA senior official on Saturday.

One day before the closing ceremony of the eight-day 6th Games, hosts China stand top of the medals tally with 17 golds, 16 silvers and 20 bronzes by far while Japan and South Korea had 11 and nine golds respectively. Next Games hosts Kazakhstan won five and Mongolia is the only other one who can have a medal, a bronze, to their name.

In last Games in Aomori, Japan, five delegations won gold medals and seven in total had medals.

"It is the first time we have all 45 members OCA here and 26 of them have athletes here. It is the first time we reached this number," said OCA director general Husain Al Musallam. "We are trying our best to help all members to get a medal at the Games,"

"We are working very hard to promote winter sports in Asia. In the near future there will be more athletes in the Games and the competition will have a higher standard," he said.

Husain admitted that many of the members have little tradition in winter sports due to their locations but the OCA encouraged them to start with indoor sports.

"Now we have Malaysia and Pakistan sending figure skating athletes here. Sports like skating, ice hockey and curling can be played indoor," he said.

OCA secretary general Raja Randhir Singh took his country India as an example.

"Even in India winter sports can be played. To spread the Games, we improved indoor ice rink and added winter sports to the programs in our Indian Summer Games every two years," said Singh.

The OCA also plan to aid members without facilities in the form of scholarship.

"We designated to some young athletes scholarships, enabling them to train in other places," he said.

Source: Xinhua