SFT set to bring Japan and Cambodia closer
A group of enthusiastic Japanese students and sports personalities joined their Cambodian counterparts on a fiveday technical workshop that concluded early this week as part of the Japanese government’s worldwide Sport For Tomorrow (SFT) initiative.
SFT is to target more than 10 million people in over 100 countries in the build-up towards the Tokyo 2020 Olym- pic and Paralympic Games.
The gathering featured several activities that enriched each other’s knowledge and understanding of the cultural and sporting links that have grown between Japan and Cambodia over the past six decades of close cooperation and diplomatic relations.
“It is a remarkable way of celebrating the close releationship between Japan and Cambodia, and the significance of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” National Olympic Committee of Cambodia secretary-general Vath Chamroeun said.
Several interesting facts and figures about the Summer Games in Japan emerged from these interactions between the student communities of both nations, with the help of several prominent sportsmen and women on both sides to guide them along.
Launched soon after Japan was awarded the Summer Games for the second time nearly eight years ago after Tokyo served as Asia’s first Olympics venue way back in 1964, SFT was designed to expand sporting values and the Olympic and Paralympic Movements to people of all generations to help ensure a better future for the world.
The program envisages both tangible and intangible ways of striking partnerships between countries around the world with a string of initiatives that extend to areas like improving sports-related facilities and providing equipment, including grants for cultural grassroots projects, sending out sports instructors and offering technical cooperation in the field of sports as well as human resource development.
Two years ago an eightmember Cambodian cheerleading team and a coach visited Japan under the aegis of the Japan Cheerleading Foundation as part of a gradual Tokyo 2020 build-up.