Bahrain has stepped up its preparations to host the Third GCC Women’s Games, scheduled to take place from March 3 to 13.

The 11-day event will have a total of nine sporting competitions, namely football, basketball, volleyball, bowling, athletics, disabled athletics, table tennis, shooting and taekwondo.

In a meeting, which was attended by directors of the sports competitions of the Games and chaired by Bahrain delegation director and Games Executive Secretariat Committee head Dr Maryam Mirza, latest arrangements were discussed as well as the next plans.

The meeting started with the directors reviewing their agenda, which included the electronic registration of sports associations data taking part in the Games, besides the time table of these data registration.

A letter will be distributed to each association, featuring the schedule of its data registration online onto the Games website.

It was agreed that the disabled sports federation and basketball association’s data will be uploaded on February 14 and 17, respectively.

The attendees then discussed the doping issue, as a guide book was presented to each director. According to Maryam, the Games will have random blood tests sessions that will be implemented for the first time.

Dr Hussain Al Haddad from the Bahrain Olympic Committee’s Anti-Doping Committee will organise a training workshop to clear all matters related to this process.

The last subject on the meeting agenda was the mechanisms of communication between the sports associations directors and Maryam and her assistant Yousef Al Marzooq in order to follow up the development of each association.

Maryam said a co-ordinator for each association will be appointed to become the joint linking her with the secretariat committee to ensure smooth operation and organising work.

Also present at the meeting were delegation deputy director Suad Yasine and Secretariat Committee head Mohammed Al Blooshi. The next meeting has been scheduled for Monday.