THE fifth GCC Sailing Championship will be held in Muscat next year, while the following edition is due to take place in Qatar 2014.

This was decided during the sixth meeting of the GCC Sailing Organising Committeeat at the Gulf Hotel's Al Nawras Hall.

The committee approved previous recommendations to improve sailing in the region, agreed to institute the GCC Award for Sport and Environment and reviewed the financial report for the period 2011/2012.

During the meeting, they also discuss issues related to the Second GCC Beach Games to be held in Saudi Arabia from November 5 to 16.

As a build up to the second edition of the GCC Beach Games, a training workshop will be hosted by Bahrain to prepare the Gulf teams for the event.

The committee also discussed its plans for the years 2013/14, including the fifth GCC Sailing Competition in Oman and the sixth GCC Sailing Competition in Qatar in March 2014.

The meeting was chaired by president of Bahrain's Maritime Sports Association and head of the GCC Sailing Organising Committee Shaikh Khalifa bin Abdullah Al Khalifa.

It was also attended by committee's general secretary Numan Rashid Al Hassan and members from Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

They are Khalifa Al Suwaidi of Qatar, Oman's Saif bin Saeed Al Shebli, Khalid Al Fodari of Kuwait, Nasser Al Nasser of Saudi Arabia and representative of the GCC General Secretariat Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Humeidi, who is also director of sports directorate at the General Secretariat.