The National Olympic Committee (NOC) on Sunday said President Ashraf Ghani’s attendance at the inauguration ceremony of the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games to be held in Ashgabat in Turkmenistan later this month will encourage Afghan athletes and motivate them to do their best. 

According to Olympic Committee officials, having the president accompany the athletes will hopefully lead them to get medals.

The 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games will be held in Ashgabat from September 17 to 27 and about 6,000 athletes are expected to take part.  

From Afghanistan 215 athletes will participate in 15 different categories.  

The Afghan athletes will head to Ashqabat in the next three days and Ghani along with CEO Abdullah Abdullah will accompany them.

“I am happy that after one and a half year, President Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah want to accompany the athletes. The president’s presence at the opening ceremony of the indoor sports will motivate the athletes and this is a good move and will encourage the sportsmen to work for medals,” said the head of the National Olympic Committee Zahir Aghbar. 

This year government also promised to award medal winners with money. 

“The good news for the athletes is that government has promised to give $10,000 USD to gold medal winners, $5,000 USD for silver medal winners, and $3,000 USD for bronze medal winners. This is common in most of countries to encourage the athletes,” Ghulam Rabbani Rabbani, the technical manager of the team said.