The Somali National Olympic committee has organized a very crucial meeting which discussed on ways to develop the country’s sport and the role of the Diaspora community in the promotion of Somali sports. The meeting was held in London over the weekend under the chairmanship of Somali National Olympic committee senior vice president for international relations Duran Ahmed Farah.

The meeting which was the second of its kind, but the largest ever held outside Somalia attracted about 100 high profile sporting individuals including Somali NOC dignitaries, sports legends, members from the Somali expatriates in UK, journalists, Somali musicians and Somali sporting associations based in the UK.

Somali National Olympic committee senior vice president for international relations Duran Ahmed Farah who addressed at the NOC-organized meeting gave detailed information about the tangible sports developments made by the Somali NOC during the past 22 years of civil wars and unrest in the country.

He presented to the meeting a document carrying the Somali NOC strategy plan for the coming four years including the country’s work plans and preparations for the 2012 London Olympic Games and how Somalia wants to appear in the international event.

“As you are all aware Somali women’s basketball team showed a wonder in last year’s All Arab games in Doha and that was because of the encouragement by the Somali community in Qatar, so this shows that the more your encouragement comes is the more our sports progresses” Duran told the Diaspora community.

“The Somali National Olympic committee has drawn a special program of maintaining successive consultations with the Diaspora community and updating them on what is going on in the country–we are doing this because the Diaspora community is a very important organ for the sports development in the country” the senior NOC vice president told the meeting over night on Sunday.

The UK-based Somali sporting community has fully pledged to organize an unprecedented welcome ceremony for the Somali delegation and athletes to the upcoming world Olympic Games in London.

Somali NOC senior vice president Duran Ahmed Farah’s delegation include: Somali Athletics Federation vice president Abdullahi Mohamed Saney, Somali basketball federation vice president Abdulkader Ali Ghedi, Somali handball federation vice president Mohamed Abdullahi, his secretary General Nur Maye Osman and Somali NOC representative to the West Midland region Omar Dhere.

SOMALI NOC MEDIA DEPARTMENT