Aspire Academy celebrates the success of student-athlete Owaab Barrow

Doha, Qatar: Aspire Academy organised a function on Monday to celebrate the achievements of Owaab Barrow at the recent Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Barrow clinched gold in the men’s 110m hurdles event with a personal best time of 13.17 seconds.

Owaab’s achievements reflect the strong cooperation and partnership that exists between the Qatar Athletics Federation (QAF) and Aspire Academy. Now in its third year, this partnership is designed to improve athletic performance and provide sportsmen with access to the world-class expertise, facilities and training opportunities available at Aspire Academy.

During Monday’s event which was attended by student-athletes, coaches, sports scientists and staff, Lee Christopher, Coach for Sprints, Hurdles and Relay at Aspire Academy and Owaab’s coach, took the lead in describing the youngster’s journey and progress during the three years from 2015 to 2018.

“From the very start, I could see that Owaab had great potential and exhibited many of the core skills needed to succeed at this level. His positivity, determination and daily focus to overcome injuries that he has sustained is exemplary,” said Christopher.

The event featured a Q&A session with Owaab during which he described his experiences and expressed his utmost gratitude and appreciation to Aspire and the QAF.

Owaab said; “Of course, determination and focus are very important. This is true not only in terms of training, but also extends to managing sleep cycles and a sticking to a strict diet. All these factors affect an athlete’s performance.”

Commenting on his future prospects, Owaab said: “I want to make the most of my opportunities and compete with the best in the world at the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha. This is one of my key goals.”

In 2020, the 17-year-old student athlete, will still be able to compete in the IAAF World U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya. And if he maintains his current progress and rate of success, he could potentially compete in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.