Sport helping heal wounds

Mohammad Wardak, deputy-head of the Afghanistan delegation, communicates with friends back home through the Internet in the Athletes' Village. Sun Xiaochen / China Dialy

GUANGZHOU - Afghanistan's new generation of athletes want to use sport as a weapon against violence and prejudice.

Personable Sayed Djawid Athar is one such young man from the nation that's been ravaged by war for decades.

"The world may be misreading the real situation in our country," Sayed, president of Afghanistan's sport shooting federation, said in an interview with China Daily on Sunday.

"Yes, war has indeed harmed us for a long time. But everything has changed, especially for members of the new generation," said Sayed, who was born in Afghanistan and educated in Germany.

"Although the domestic situation is precarious sometimes, we still have the opportunity to develop a sports industry in our country and we can go abroad to attend sports events. That's why we are here - to change people's minds about Afghanistan. And sport is the best stage for doing that."

With a 127-member delegation in Guangzhou, including 67 athletes, Afghanistan will compete in dozens of events.

The cricket, shooting, taekwondo and weightlifting competitions represent the nation's best hopes for medals at the Asian Games.

The contingent includes 12 veiled female competitors who attracted plenty of media attention when they showed up at the delegation's welcoming ceremony.

"That's maybe one of the misunderstandings," said Sayed. "Actually, women have equal rights to take part in sports events in our country now. They trained very hard to be here.

"This time we sent a dozen (women). Maybe in four years, we will send 100 female athletes to the next Asian Games."

Because some team members had expired visas, the Afghanistan delegation had to postpone registration at the Athletes' Village when it arrived on Nov 8.

Mohammad Wardak, deputy head of the delegation, solved the problem by communicating with officials at home through a cyber video conference on his laptop.

"We often use the Internet to contact our colleagues or families at home," said Wardak. "It's convenient and efficient."

China Daily