Para-athletics: Record participation expected at the 8th Moulay El Hassan International Meeting
Hibapress
The organizers of the 8th Moulay El Hassan International Para-Athletics Meeting, scheduled for April 26 to 28 in Marrakech, under the High Patronage of King Mohammed VI, indicated that this edition will see record participation.
The president of the Royal Moroccan Federation of Sports for People with Disabilities (FRMSPSH), Hamid El Aouni noted, Wednesday during a press conference to present this competition, that this edition will beat the record of the previous one in terms of of participating countries.
This year’s edition, organized in partnership with the Ministry of National Education, Preschool and Sports, under the banner of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), will see the participation of 64 countries, compared to 44 during the 2022 editions. and 2023, representing Africa, Europe, Asia and America, in addition to Morocco, which will be represented by 60 athletes (plus 10 athletes in the blind category) out of 450 participants, explained M .El Aouni.
He indicated that this event increased its influence at the international level after joining the Grand Prix calendar of the International Federation of Sports for People with Disabilities, under the banner of the International Paralympic Committee, which represents a source of pride for Moroccan sport in general and sports for people with disabilities in particular.
He added that the meeting program will be divided into two stages and will begin, as provided for in the regulations, with the phase of classification of athletes by the IPC from April 22 to 25, for physical, visual and intellectual impairment and will be followed, from the 26th to the 28th of the same month, by the competitions at the Grand stadium in Marrakech.
For his part, the technical director of the FRMSPSH, Said Lamrini, stressed that the 8th Moulay El Hassan International Para-Athletics Meeting represents an opportunity for national and international athletes to obtain qualifying results for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. .
He estimated that this event will also be an opportunity for Moroccan athletes to gain more experience.
The national technical framework indicated that the selection of athletes and competitions was based on the level of the participants to give the greatest number of people the opportunity to achieve positive results.
Several activities are on the program for this edition, including athlete training camps and training sessions supervised by IPC experts for the benefit of national and international para-athletics and blind football coaches and referees.
Also planned are the signing of partnership agreements, inclusive awareness workshops for students in the region in coordination with the Marrakech-Safi Regional Education-Training Academy and Entraide nationale, as well as a meeting of communication and exchange with associations affiliated with the FRMSPSH.
