QOC celebrates Qatar’s shining stars
Doha: The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) highlighted how Qatari athletes continue to grow in strength and scope as it celebrated some of the names enjoying international success.
World junior weightlifting champion Fares Ibrahim, champion equestrian Khalid Al Emadi, professional squash player Abdulla Tamimi and international fencer Mohammed Al Shammeri, participated in an interactive session with media to discuss their hopes, aspirations and achievements.
Ferociously talented Fares Ibrahim, still just 19-years-old, will be heading for his first senior World Championships in the United States from November 28 to December 5, when he will test his mettle against older, more experienced athletes. This is not a new experience for Ibrahim, however, who won the 2016 Asian Championships and finished an incredible seventh-place at the Rio 2016 Olympics, when he was just 18.
Ibrahim’s confidence is sky high after he won the World Junior Championships in Tokyo earlier this year. Speaking ahead of the World Championships, Ibrahim said: “My preparations have been going very well and I have had a strong, focused training programme in place. The World Championships will bring the strongest competitors from all over the world but my ambitions are very high and I am aiming to win a medal.”
Qatar’s equestrian team has achieved incredible success on home soil over recent weeks with Bassem Mohammed and Sheikh Ali Al Thani winning the Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) Grand Prix and Qatar International Show Jumping Championships respectively. The LGCT finale was held at Al Shaqab from November 9 to 11 and drew huge crowds for the climax of the most challenging show jumping circuit in the world. Bassem demonstrated nerves of steel in the nine-strong jump off to sweep home clear and finish a full two seconds ahead of his closest rival. Meanwhile, Sheikh Ali, who last year finished sixth at the Rio 2016 Olympics, claimed his second consecutive victory at the Grand Prix event of the Qatar International Show Jumping Championships at Qatar Equestrian Federation’s Al Rayyan arena, which was held from November 16 to 18. The victory saw Sheikh Ali qualify for the 2018 World Cup Jumping event.
Khaled Al Emadi is another member of Qatar’s equestrian team who is achieving strong results on an international stage including a victory at the CHI Al Shaqab event, held in Doha. Khaled was also a member of the historic show jumping team that qualified for last year’s Rio 2016 Olympics for the first time ever. He said: “I graduated with a law degree last year from Qatar University and now I am back fully focused on training and the upcoming competitions. Our main ambitions are to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. We qualified for the first time ever at the Rio 2016 Olympics last year and gave impressive performances that were praised by other international athletes and our fans.”
Qatar’s first-ever professional squash player, Abdulla Tamimi, broke into the world’s top 40 for the first time last year following strong performances on the PSA World Tour. The 22-year-old Aspire Academy graduate represented Qatar in last month’s 2017 Qatar Classic Squash Championships.
Tamimi said: “I have many challenges ahead of me – next month I will compete in the World Squash Championships in Manchester, England, and I have been training very hard for this. I’m very satisfied with my career performances so far – I have had some good results against the world’s best squash players and I have been competing regularly in internationally recognised competitions and gaining important points along the way.”
Mohammed Al Shammeri, 23, will be one of 18 fencers (11 male and 7 female) representing Qatar at the upcoming FIE Qatar Grand Prix. Al Shammeri, a World Youth Cup bronze medallist who also finished seventh in the Asian U23 Championships, is looking to beat the world’s best in front of a home crowd as the global competition once again returns to Doha. The annual event is part of a series of nine Grand Prix competitions that take place around the world and will see 400 male and female athletes from 47 countries compete at the Aspire Dome from December 8 to 10. Entrance is free for all spectators and the event will also be broadcast live on Al Kass and the Olympic Channel.
“I have been participating in the Qatar Grand Prix for more than six years and each year my goals increase and my ultimate ambition is to get a medal. The very best professional fencers from around the world will be competing so it will be very tough but I am motivated to win and raise the name of Qatar higher on an international level,” said Al Shammeri. “ My biggest dream is to compete in the Olympics, and in the future, I will be participating in more international competitions to get more experience and keep improving my performances.”
A further highlight for Qatar came earlier this month when it was announced that Mutaz Barshim was shortlisted as one of three finalists for the prestigious 2017 World Athlete of the Year Award. The winner will be decided through a combination of an online public vote, which closed last month, and e-mail votes from the IAAF Family and IAAF Council.
Mutaz, who this year won the IAAF World Championships in London and dominated the IAAF Diamond League series, also became the first high jumper to go undefeated in a whole season since 2004. Mutaz is up against British 10,000m World Champion, Mo Farah, and South African 400m World Champion and world-record holder Wayde Van Niekerk. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in Monaco on November 24.
