Basketball, handball, table tennis and volleyball have also been requested to inform the BOC of their upcoming training programmes, as well as the supervisors of their respective centres.

The BOC’s Women’s Sport Committee, headed by Shaikha Hayat bint Abdulaziz Al Khalifa, adopted a girls' training programme in cooperation with the Education Ministry in a bid to develop women’s sports in Bahrain.

The Ministry has designated four sports halls - all within Government schools from around the country - to embrace the programme.

East Riffa Secondary Boys School plays host to table tennis, while Khawla Secondary Girls School stages basketball.

Volleyball and handball are held at Hamad Town Secondary Boys School and Ghazi Al Qusaibi Secondary Girls School respectively.

At the last Olympics in London four years ago, Bahrain was represented by more female athletes than male athletes.

Their team of 12 included eight women and four men.

One of the women, Maryam Yusuf Jamal, won Bahrain's first-ever Olympic medal.

Jamal, originally from Ethiopia, won the bronze medal in the 1500 metres. 

That may yet be upgraded to gold, however.

The winner, Turkey's Aslı Çakır Alptekin, has already been disqualified because of doping.

The silver medalist, meanwhile, Alptekin's training partner, Gamze Bulut, has failed a drugs test., it was reported last month.