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Three Afghans, including 2 women, chosen for Olympics Refugee Team

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(Last Updated On: June 9, 2021)

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday announced the names of the athletes who will represent the IOC Refugee Olympic Team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021 and three of them are Afghans.

The 29 athletes come from 11 countries, including Afghanistan, and were selected by the IOC’s Executive Board from an initial group of 55 IOC Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holders.

“The refugee athletes are an enrichment for all of us in the entire Olympic community,” IOC President Thomas Bach said at the virtual ceremony from Lausanne.

“The reasons we created this team still exist. We have more forcibly displaced people in the world right now, and therefore it went without saying that we wanted to create an IOC Refugee Olympic Team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics”.

“The athletes represent not only themselves, not only the IOC, but also all refugees in the world,” IOC Refugee Olympic Team Chef de Mission Tegla Loroupe added. “Let’s bring solidarity, as we are solidarity people.

“Our universal language is sport, let’s go and bring joy.”

The three hard-working Afghan refugees, including two women, are Abdullah Sediqi (Taekwondo Men’s 68kg); Masomah Ali Zada (Cycling Women’s Road) and Nigara Shaheen (Judo Women’s Mixed team).

Sediqi is based in Belgium, Zada is in France and Shaheen is in Russia.

Abdullah Sediqi

Sediqi has relied on taekwondo to get him by since he was eight years old.

In an interview with the IOC recently Sediqi said the sport, which he now practises in Belgium, has been a guiding light through difficult times, first when escaping from his home country four years ago and then again through the coronavirus pandemic.

“It was a gruelling mission, there were days I walked for 12 hours straight,” he said of his escape.

Now established in Wilrijk, a neighbourhood of Antwerp, the 24-year-old is focusing on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games this summer in 2021.

While Sediqi is fully focussed on his dream of going to the Olympic Games, the real world provided an emotional blow to him this past year.

In a recent interview with Taekwondo Vlaanderen (Flanders Taekwondo), he revealed that he was not able to see his mother before her death from coronavirus in Afghanistan.

“My mother died of coronavirus six months ago,” he said. “Her death was difficult for me – I had not seen her since my arrival in Belgium. Suddenly, you are told she is seriously ill; a while later she was gone.

Masomah Ali Zada

For Zada, it all changed when a French TV show aired called “Les Petites Reines de Kaboul” (“The Little Queens of Kabul”).

Along with her sister Zahra, the documentary showed the difficulties of cycling as a female in her home country.

“In Afghanistan, men think it’s unsuitable for a woman to ride a bike,” said Zada to France24.

According to the IOC, after watching the programme, a retired French lawyer called Patrick Communal arranged for them to come to France on a humanitarian visa and made a successful application for asylum.

“It’s very easy for men and women here to ride a bike,” Zada said.

Both sisters are enrolled at the University of Lille and Masomah Zada has been invited on the IOC Refugee Athlete Scholarship programme.

Aged 24, she is training hard in northern France ahead of the Olympics.

“By taking part in the Olympic Games, I want to convince those who think a woman on a bicycle is inappropriate or find it strange that a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf is a cyclist that no, it’s normal,” Zada said to Paris Match.

Nigara Shaheen

Born in Afghanistan, Shaheen is a judoka competing in the under 70kg category.

She started practising judo when she was 11, living as a refugee in Peshawar, Pakistan, as practising martial arts was a family tradition.

She is studying international trade at a university in Ekaterinburg, in Russia, and is aiming to get her master’s degree.

As a member of the IJF Refugee Team, she participated in the Düsseldorf Grand Slam in 2020 and the Kazan Grand Slam in 2021.

The three Afghans will take their spots alongside the other refugee athletes for the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Games on 23 July 2021. The team will enter the brand new Japan National Stadium with the Olympic flag in second position, immediately after Greece.

The team will stay in the Olympic village, like all the other 206 National Olympic Committees taking part, and continue to receive IOC support after the Games.

For all official representations of the team (including possible medal ceremonies), the Olympic flag will be raised and the Olympic anthem will be played.

Tokyo 2020 President Hashimoto Seiko said: “The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee welcomes the participation of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, following its debut at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.

“The participation of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team in the Tokyo 2020 Games, which will be both a festival of sport and a celebration of peace, will draw the world’s attention to the issue of refugees and further advance efforts to achieve world peace through the elimination of the wars and conflicts that cause people to flee their homeland.”

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Afghanistan dominate Ireland to win T20I series

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(Last Updated On: March 19, 2024)

Afghanistan proved too strong with bat and ball against Ireland as they claimed a 57-run victory in Sharjah on Monday to edge the T20I series 2-1.

A superb 72 not out from Ibrahim Zadran, backed up by the bowling of Azmatullah Omarzai, gave the hosts victory in the final match of Ireland’s tour against Afghanistan.

“It is a great series win for us,” said Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan, going on to praise the performance of his young side.

The Irish were unable to chase down a target of 156, with Omarzai’s four wickets for just nine runs helping bowl the tourists out for 98 inside 18 overs.

Ireland won the first T20I of the mini-series last week but consecutive wins on Sunday and Monday ensured Afghanistan recovered to take the three-game series, after earlier winning the ODI series 2-0.

For the third consecutive time, Khan won the toss against Ireland and as he did in Monday’s 10-run win, he elected to bat first.

Batting at three, 22-year-old Zadran anchored Afghanistan’s innings with his career-best T20I score of 72, which boosted the hosts to a total Ireland could not match.

Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz rounded off a T20I series he will hope to forget on a personal level, after scores of zero and three in the first two matches, when Harry Tector took a superb diving catch to dismiss him for six at the start of the third over.

Afghanistan were then ticking along nicely with Zadran and Sediqullah Atal at the crease, until Atal chipped a turning ball straight back to Gareth Delany.

In the very next over, Omarzai, on back-to-back golden ducks, was dropped by Delany on one but departed just two deliveries later, after lobbing Curtis Campher to Josh Little.

Mohammad Ishaq’s arrival steadied the ship for Afghanistan as he mounted a crucial fourth-wicket stand of 54 with Zadran, until the No 5 mistimed a lob on 27 and Paul Stirling snaffled up the ball.

With just over five overs left, Zadran kept the scoreboard moving along for Afghanistan.

Ijaz Ahmadzai ably deputized him at the end with 10 runs from three balls, including a monster six in the last over, before he was run out trying to get his partner back on strike for the final delivery.

Ireland’s run chase never really got underway, especially after Naveen-ul-Haq bowled both Andy Balbirnie and Lorcan Tucker with consecutive deliveries in the second over.

Some resistance came from Campher and Delany’s 36-run sixth-wicket stand but the visitors were never really allowed to form any partnership of great merit by Afghanistan’s pace attack.

Omarzai, 23, claimed the key wickets of Tector and George Dockrell, before removing Mark Adair and Barry McCarthy as Afghanistan took apart the Irish batting line-up.

Naveen-ul-Haq then bowled Ben White with a slower ball, bringing a close to affairs and securing Afghanistan a tight series win ahead of this summer’s T20 World Cup.

Despite defeat, Ireland will still view the tour as an historic success after they won their very first test match on March 1. – AFP

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Ireland beat Afghanistan by 38 runs in first T20I

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(Last Updated On: March 16, 2024)

Ireland defeated Afghanistan by 38 runs to take 1-0 lead in their three-match T20I series in Sharjah on Friday.

Sent to bat first by Afghans who won the toss, Ireland posted 149-6, with Harry Tector scoring 56 off 34 (not out). Captain Paul Stirling hit 25 while Andy Balbirnie made 22.

Rashid Khan, who returned to competitive cricket after months of absence due to back injury, picked up three wickets, giving away 19 runs in the four overs he bowled.

Nangeyalia Kharote picked up two wickets, giving away only 16 runs in his four overs.

Chasing 150, Afghanistan lost Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the very first bowl of their innings. They lost Sediqullah Atal and Azmatullah Omarzai in the second over.

Wickets continued to fall and Afghanistan were all out in the 18.4 overs, having made 111 runs. Mohammad Ishaq (32) was their top-scorer, followed by Mohammad Nabi who made 25.

The second T20I between the sides will be played on Sunday at the same venue.

 

 

 

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Rashid back in team for T20I series against Ireland

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(Last Updated On: March 14, 2024)

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has announced the names of 15 national cricket team players for the T20 international series against Ireland.

Included in the team is Rashid Khan. This comes after a break of a few months following back surgery.

Rashid will also captain the team.

Afghanistan and Ireland cricket teams will face each other at Sharjah Stadium on March 15, 17 and 18 after playing the ODI series and one off test match.

List of Afghanistan players:

Rashid Khan (Captain), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Garbaz, Sediq Atal, Ijaz Ahmadzai, Ishaq Rahimi, Mohammad Nabi, Nangyal Kharotai, Azmatullah Omarzai, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Wafadar Momand, Farid Malik, Naveen-ul-Haq and Fazal Haq Farooqi.

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