MUSCAT -- Oman is expecting to end its Olympic medal drought in the Beijing Games this summer, the country's top sports official Ali Masoud Ali Al-Sunaidy said here on Saturday.
Oman, an participant in the Olympic Games since 1984, has not won a medal in the Olympic Games, Al-Sunaidy, minister of sports affairs and chairman of Oman Olympic Committee, told Xinhua two days before Omani capital Muscat to hold a torch relay of Beijing Olympic flame.
Oman hopes to expand its participation in the Olympic Games though the number of athletes of the country is limited, he added.
"Our policy is to be strong enough regionally first, and now we have started looking at Asia. Once we have stabilized our participation at the Asian level, we think we can grow to the Olympic level," he said.
Oman has a special tie with Beijing in sports as its first gold medal in the Asian Games was won in Beijing in 1990 by 400-meter runner Mohammed bin Amer Al Malky.
The sacred flame of Beijing Olympic Games will arrive in Muscat next Monday for a torch relay in the city. Muscat, the only Arab city to host the Beijing Olympic torch relay, will be the ninth leg of the unprecedented relay.
The 2008 Olympic flame was ignited on March 24 in Ancient Olympia of Greece and was handed over to Beijing on March 31 after a six-day relay in Greece.
The 130-day torch relay will cover 137,000 kilometers before the flame returns to Beijing and enters the National Stadium on August 8 for the Olympic opening ceremony.
