The 18th Arab School Sports Tournament organized by Arab Union for Physical Education and School Sports was opened here on Sunday with the participation of Saudi Arabia along with 13 Arab countries in various sports games. The Saudi delegation , represented by Ministry of Education, included 170 athletes and will take part in football, handball, basketball, volleyball, athletics, swimming, table tennis, badminton, and futsal football. The Arab School sports tournament is biennial event. It was first incepted here in Beirut in 1949 with four Arab countries participated including Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Iraq with only four games to prevail in. When the tournaments revived in 1961 by the Arab League, the first official tournament was held in Kuwait on 8-15 November 1963 with a number of participated countries surged to 13 competed in 6 games. Saudi Arabia hosted the tournament in Jeddah in 2004 with 17 Arab countries. The last tournament was held in Amman on 20 August, 2008, in which Saudi Arabia reaped 10 medals including 1 gold, 7 silvers and two more bronze medals.
