Qatari Student Athletes Aspire, Compete and Win Across Europe, Asia and the Middle East; Gold Medal Presented in Thailand High Jump Event
Doha, Qatar: Students of ASPIRE, Qatar's Academy of Sports Excellence, have completed a packed summer program of sporting achievement which saw many attain personal bests in high-calibre contests held across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
As part of ASPIRE's annual program, students took part in international football, athletics, squash, judo, and table tennis competitions and achieved strong results against the world's best young athletes in the students' respective age groups.
Exposure to international competition is one of the ways in which ASPIRE helps develop its student athletes, helping them acclimatise to different playing styles and foreign cultures, and enabling them to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges of competing overseas.
It also provides a good measure of how well the student athletes are developing in their chosen sports.
This year, ASPIRE again set new standards in a wide array of competitions. Competing in late August in Lampang, Thailand, the ASPIRE athletics medal haul included one gold, five silver and three bronze while the judo team brought home one gold and four bronze.
ASPIRE students recorded strong results across all events, including a first-place finish in the high jump event, and silver medals in shot put and discus. The ASPIRE team also came second and third in the hammer throwing event. The medal tally was rounded off by a third place finish in the 400 meter hurdles and long jump.
Dr. Andreas Bleicher, ASPIRE's Sports Director said: "International competition is important for our athletes and brings out the best in them. Results from the different training camps and competitions have been very promising and this success demonstrates the progress that many of our students are making."
ASPIRE athletes competing in squash and table tennis camps also claimed individual victories in events around the world, including contests in Manama in Bahrain, Cairo in Egypt and Shi Jia Zhuang in China.
Football teams from ASPIRE fared well in Leverkusen, Germany, in June and in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in July, beating youth teams from prestigious teams including Chelsea, Koln and Ireland on the way.
September brings the start of the 2007 ASPIRE academic school year, a new term and new opportunities for students to leverage the invaluable experience they have gained over the preceding packed summer of international camps and competitions.
Buoyed by strong results - and the induction of a new year of students with which to train, compete and study - many students are confident that this could be their most exciting year to date.
-Ends-
About ASPIRE
ASPIRE, the Academy for Sports Excellence, Doha, was created with the dual aims of identifying and transforming promising student athletes into world renowned champions across a wide range of sports and to act as a beacon to draw sporting culture into the centre of life in Qatar and the surrounding region.
The Academy is distinguished by a philosophy which aims to develop the whole student, providing them with full academic, social and sporting development.
Unrivalled facilities mark the Academy out as one of the world's foremost sporting and educational institutions, and entice an ever increasing number of visitors from across the spectrum of world sports to use or simply view them.
With one indoor and seven outdoor football pitches, athletics tracks, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, diving pool, combat arenas, gymnastics arena, specially designed weight rooms, lecture halls, dormitories to accommodate what will eventually become 1,000 students, a medical centre and more besides, much beneath the world's largest purpose built indoor sports dome, every aspect of the development of elite athletes is catered for. ASPIRE is a place for those who dare to dream.
ASPIRE TODAY, INSPIRE TOMORROW
www.aspire.qa
© Press Release 2007
