ANOC today announced that a total of 97 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have qualified and confirmed their places at the ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019 for what will be a truly global festival of beach, water and action sports.
All five Continents will be represented at the inaugural Games with 17 NOCs qualified from Africa, 19 from Americas, 21 from Asia, 35 from Europe and 5 from Oceania. With the qualification process now closed, the final list of qualified NOCs can be found below and on the ANOC World Beach Games website: https://awbgqatar.com/.
The qualification process began in June last year and was designed to ensure that the best athletes would be competing at the Games. Each sport had a different qualification pathway but the majority of qualification places were drawn from world ranking places or the highest finishing places at World Championships or Continental Championships.
ANOC Secretary General Gunilla Lindberg said:
“We are delighted to have close to 100 NOCs from all five continents qualified for the ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019. As the first ever edition of the event, we could not be sure how many NOCs would qualify and so it has been fantastic to see big and small NOCs from all over the world qualify over the last 12 months. The qualification process has already connected NOCs with an entirely new set of elite national athletes and the Games itself will provide a global platform to connect these new stars and new sports with a new generation of sports fans. We look forward to welcoming them all to Qatar in next month for what will be an unforgettable celebration of sport.”
More than 1,200 athletes are expected to compete at the ANOC World Beach Games which will formally begin with an Opening Ceremony on 12 October 2019. A total of 14 disciplines across 13 sports will be competed in during the Games which concludes on 16 October. The ANOC General Assembly and ANOC Awards 2019 will follow the next day on 17-18 October.
The full list of qualified NOCs are:
