KABUL - Watched by Afghanistan’s first female Olympian, more than 150 girls from high schools in the capital, Kabul, competed today in a track and field event held to select female athletes for the country’s female Athletics Team.

“From this running competition, only the 12 best runners will be selected,” said Jan Alam Hassani, the Secretary-General of Afghanistan’s National Olympics Committee (ANOC), which organized the selection event along with the Directorate of Physical Education at the Ministry of Education.

Girls, ranging in age between 13 and 18 years, competed in 100-, 200- and 400-metre races. Afterwards medals and certificates were awarded.

Winners of today’s races will compete against the top athletes from the rest of the country. The winners of those races will earn a place on the national team.

The country’s first female Olympic athlete, Tahmina Kohistani, attended today’s competitions as a special guest and to encourage and motivate young female athletes. Ms. Kohistani was part of the team of five athletes who represented Afghanistan at the London Olympic Games in 2012, where she competed in the 100-meter sprint.

“I want to represent Afghanistan at international competitions and bring a good name for my nation,” said Rukhsar, a 14-year old student from Durkhanai High School, who came in first place in today’s 200-metre race.

Speaking after last year’s Olympics, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfried Lemke, noted how that event helped pave the road for future successes in promoting social change in a range of areas, from gender equality to peace building.

Despite being a conservative society, in recent years female participation in competitive sports has won greater acceptance. Afghanistan has 48 federations for different sports that are registered with the National Olympics Committee. Over 3,000 women are enrolled in these federations, and women compete on football, volleyball, and cricket teams. Power-lifting, boxing, taekwondo, and karate are also popular with Afghan girls.

Afghanistan’s female athletes are beginning to make their mark abroad. In 2011, Afghan women won three gold medals and two bronze medals in power-lifting at a pan-Asian competition held in Kazakhstan. In 2010, Afghanistan’s women’s football team defeated their counterparts from Pakistan 4-0 in the South Asian Football Championship. In several weeks, the National Women’s Volleyball team will visit Tajikistan in to compete with their Tajik rivals. It will be that team’s first trip abroad.

According to the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace, sport, as a universal language, can be a powerful tool to promote peace, tolerance and understanding by bringing people together across boundaries, cultures and religions. Its intrinsic values such as teamwork, fairness, discipline, respect for the opponent and the rules of the game are understood all over the world and can be harnessed in the advancement of solidarity, social cohesion and peaceful coexistence, the UN agency notes.