Sulaymaniyah hosted West Asia regional Olympic qualification for table tennis

SULAYMANIYAH — Athletes from 10 West Asian countries competed for three days in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region, for a qualifying berth in the men’s and women’s table tennis competitions at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

This was the first time such games were in Sulaymaniyah, with a total of 29 athletes, 18 male, and 11 female, gathering in the city for the West Asia Regional Olympics Qualification tournament.

Following three days of qualifying matches ending on May 19, Jordan’s Zaid Abuyaman and Lebanon’s Mariana secured their places in the Paris 2024 Olympics. The Paris Summer Olympics will begin in early July 2024.

The players were from Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, Yemen, Oman, Palestine, and the host nation Iraq.
Herda Raouf, president of the Iraqi Table Tennis Federation, told 964media, “Holding the West Asia Regional Olympic Qualification for Table Tennis in Iraq for the first time, particularly in

Sulaymaniyah, reflects the success of the event, due to the cooperation of all institutions in the [Kurdistan] Region, which provided strong support and facilitation for its organization.”
He added that the event would help promote the culture of the city and Kurdistan, “demonstrating that we, like other countries, have the capability to host such competitions.”