Taliban Says Sporting Cooperation with Iranian Instructors to Expand in Bamyan

The Taliban administration announced that the leadership of its General Directorate of Olympic, Physical Education and Sports held talks with three mountaineering instructors from the Islamic Republic of Iran on continuing and expanding sporting cooperation, especially in mountaineering.

According to the National Olympic Committee, the meeting took place after the conclusion of a 10-day training and selection camp for the national mountaineering team in Bamyan province. Mawlawi Ahmadullah Wasiq, head of the Taliban administration’s General Directorate of Olympic, Physical Education and Sports, welcomed sporting cooperation between the two countries and stressed that it should continue.

According to the report, 90 climbers from different provinces of Afghanistan, as well as Afghan refugees living in Iran, took part in the training programme. At the end of the camp, 30 people were selected for the national mountaineering team and 31 others received third-degree coaching certificates.

The National Olympic Committee also said a natural rock-climbing site with a height of 150 metres and a length of 500 metres has been established in the Sabzak area on the Syghan road in Bamyan. The Iranian instructors also described Bamyan as suitable for the development of mountaineering, given its natural and mountainous potential, and stressed the continuation of educational and technical cooperation.

The camp training was delivered by Hassan Javaherpour, Armin Mojahadpour and Iman Ahmadpour, three mountaineering instructors from the Islamic Republic of Iran. At the end of the programme, the country’s sports leadership presented the instructors with Olympic-branded watches.

Bamyan, in central Afghanistan, is one of the country’s mountainous provinces and, due to its high areas and rocky landscape, has suitable potential for mountain sports.