By Nick Butler 

Athletes and officials from across the Afghanistan sporting community attended the event in Kabul ©A-NOCA ceremony recognising the achievements of 80 Afghan medallists at international competitions has been held by the Afghanistan National Olympic Committee (A-NOC) in Kabul.


The event, the biggest of its scale ever hosted by the central Asian country, was attended by Government officials, Ministers, Parliament members, senators, civil society members and representatives of female rights organisations, as well as over 5,000 athletes.

This included two medals at the Asian Games in Incheon - a silver for the men's cricket team and a bronze for taekwondo player Ahmad Roman Abasi.

Two silver and two bronze medals were also won in the sports of kurash and muay thai at last November's Asian Beach Games in Phuket, while taekwondo, gymnastics, wushu, handball and cycling were other nations to have produced successes. 

"Our country is mostly known in the world for war, violence and the Taliban," said A-NOC President Fahim Hashimy when he addressed the athletes.

"But your achievements for the country in last six months in international events made the nation proud and has shown the world that your country is not only a place for war and bombing.

"The people have grown up and live with sports and they believe sport is a symbol of their unity.

"Achieving 80 medals from different international events is a big achievement for the A-NOC and sports family in the county."

Some of the Asian nation's international medallists during the ceremony ©A-NOCSome of the Asian nation's international medallists during the ceremony ©A-NOC



The success follows profound changes with the NOC since Hashimy assumed the Presidency last year, with the official, a businessman who owns television network 1TV, having taken many steps to ensure the independence of the body from the Government. 

But these changes have faced much opposition, with Hashimy having been forced to finance the team largely out of his own pocket due to a lack of funding elsewhere.

"The reason for such an achievement is the separation of National Olympic Committee from the Sport Directorate by a formal sentence of the Afghanistan Presidential Decree on May 19," he added.

"Acceptance of an Independent Olympic Committee by Afghanistan Government
is a big step toward sport improvement, especially Olympic sports, and these achievements will be continued up to the 2016 Olympics."

The news comes as a welcome boost after Hashimy faced accusations of supporting corrupt officials within the taekwondo federation, which he has strongly denied.

The country's only Olympic medallist, Beijing 2008 and London 2012 bronze medal winner Rohullah Nikpai, has resigned from the team as a consequence, although Hashimy insists they still remain in a good place ahead of Rio 2016.

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