As part of FINA’s development program, FINA representative John Stathis conducted a development clinic for Palestinian coaches in Ramallah, Palestine October 29th through November first.
The clinic, located in the West Bank area of the country near Jerusalem at the First Ramallah Group headquarters, covered topics at FINA’s Beginner and Intermediate levels.
Palestine sent two swimmers to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics this year. Ahmed Gebrel competed in his second consecutive games, finishing 47th in the men’s 200 free with 1:59.71, while Mary Al-Atrash finished 62nd in the 50 free with 28.76.
Palestinian Olympic Committee Head Jibril Rajoub opened up the clinic.
“[Rajoub] spoke of the optimism for the development of sport generally that he has and how the coaches present needed to be proactive in improving for this to be a reality,” said Stathis in his write-up. “In reality, they have enthusiastic coaches and teachers and many who have a reasonable knowledge. What is really obviously lacking for the development of swimming are swimming pools and aquatic facilities. We take for granted the plethora of short and long course facilities available to us, but some serious investment needs to take place to get to a level of reasonable competitiveness.”