Category: Athletic

Sealing a quickfire double for connections, H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Thani’s KHATEER ALKHALEDIAH(KSA) (Laith Al Khalediah x Edele De Carrere) got up close home to win the Listed Sheikh Zayed Bin Zultan Al Nathan Cup at San Sebastian racecourse, Spain on Saturday 10th July.

Notching up a fourth consecutive success for his trainer Elizabeth Bernard and given a strong ride by Gary Sanchez, KHATEER ALKHALEDIAH claimed a first win at listed level.

Having been keen in the early stages of the 1,600m contest, KHATEER ALKHALEDIAH was momentarily caught for toe as the sprint was launched at the top of the straight. Once he found his stride, he stayed on powerfully and won by a half a length at the line. Al Shaqab Racing’s SHADAD (FR) (TM Fred Texas x Nasrat), and winner of this race last year, was the runner-up for trainer Charles Gourdain and jockey Maxime foulon. The D. Watrigant-trained and Mickael Forest-ridden BEL’IZAM (FR) (Nizam x Djesabelle) was a further length behind in third.

A son of LAITH AL KHALEDIAH (Tiwaiq), KHATEER ALKHALEDIAH was bred by Al Khalediah Stables and is out of EDELE DE CARRERE (Djourman) a winner over 1,800m.

Source: Qatar Racing & Equestrian Club

MAGUROOR (FR) (Assy x Chamade de Chazel) carried the silks of his owner His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Thani to victory in the Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Cup at San Sebastian racecourse, Spain on Saturday 10th July.

Trained by Elizabeth Bernard and ridden to success by Gary Sanchez, MAGUROOR was having his second career start having had his debut at Toulouse, France a month ago.

Taking a lead throughout the early stages of the 2,000m contest for three-year-old Purebred Arabians, MAGUROOR always looked to be travelling stronger than his three rivals. Turning for home, jockey Gary Sanchez allowed his mount to stride-on and he quickly had the better of the long race leader and eventual second ITCHY DE NACRE (FR) (Al Mamun Monlau x Nacre Du Croate) by a comfortable 1¾ length-margin. The runner-up is trained by David Morisson and was ridden by Emilien Revolte. The Didier Guillemin-trained and Alexandre Gavilan-ridden HAIBA (FR) (Al Tair x Amannite) was a further length behind in third in the colours of His Highness Sheikh Abdullah Bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

Bred by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Thani’s Al Shahania Stud, MAGUROOR is by top Arabian stallion ASSY (Amer) and is out of group three winner Chamade De Chazel (Dormane) who was also placed at group one level and was also trained by Elizabeth Bernard.

Source: Qatar Racing & Equestrian Club

Gstaad-Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan qualified to the semifinals of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-star event in Gstaad on Friday.

In the Round of 16, they eliminated Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl in a close 2-0 (22-20, 21-19) match.

Later, in the quarterfinals, they had an even longer battle with Brazil’s Evandro Goncalves and Bruno Schmidt but emerged victorious after three sets (16-21, 21-15, 21-19).

In the semifinals, the Qatari duo will take on Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viacheslav Krasilnikov in the tournament in the Swiss Alps.

Source: Qatar Olympic Committee

Tashkent-The draw for the 2022 Asian U-23 Cup qualifiers has placed Qatar’s Olympic team in Group A along with Syria, Yemen and Sri Lanka. Group B includes Iran, Tajikistan, Lebanon and Nepal, while Group C has Iraq, Bahrain, Afghanistan and the Maldives.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, hosts of the group, and Bangladesh, as well as Uzbekistan, hosts of the finals, are in Group D. The matches of the West Zone groups will be hosted by Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Tajikistan and the United Arab Emirates, while the eastern zone group matches will be staged in China, Taipei, Indonesia, Mongolia and Singapore.

A total of 42 teams will participate in the qualifiers from October 23 to 31 2021 to obtain 15 spots in the finals to join Uzbekistan, which will host the tournament’s fifth edition.

The teams were divided into two geographical regions – the first consisting of 23 teams from the West, South and Central, while the second consisted of 19 teams from the East and ASEAN regions. The teams were ranked according to their results in the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship in Thailand.

Source: Qatar Olympic Committee

DOHA-Under the theme of “We Are Team Qatar”, the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOQ) launched its promotional campaign to support Team Qatar stars ahead of their participation in Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games to take place from July 23 to August 08, 2021. A phrase that represents the pride and unity of Team Qatar to unite the audience behind the team from all demographics.

A total of 15 athletes will proudly represent Qatar in 7 sports at Tokyo 2020 Olympics as Team Qatar will compete in a total of 7 Sports and 6 Track and Field disciplines. 2 female athletes will participate in the sports of Rowing and Athletics.

Team Qatar roster in Tokyo 2020 Olympics includes; Mutaz Barshim, Abderrahman Samba, Abubaker Hayder, Abdirahman Saeed Hassan, Musab Adam, Femi Ogunode, Ashraf Amgad El-Seify (Athletics), Mohamed Al Rumaihi (Shooting), Fares Ibrahim (Weightlifting), Cherif Younouse, Ahmed Tijan (Beach Volleyball), Ayoub Al Idrisi (Judo) and Abdulaziz Al Obaidly (Swimming).

The Qatari women will be represented by Bashayer Almanwari in 100m event and Tala Abu-Jubara, the first Qatari female athlete to represent Qatar in Rowing at the Olympic Games.

The QOC campaign “We Are Team Qatar” will focus on some important messages as it calls on all the sporting community to get behind Team Qatar stars as they strive to make our nation proud.

As the QOC is leaving no stone unturned in preparation for the upcoming Olympics Games, it encourages its followers on social media platforms to show their support for team Qatar stars through the following accounts; Instagram: Qatar_Olympic Twitter: Qatar_Olympic Facebook: TeamQatar YouTube: TeamQatar Snapchat: TeamQatar.

Qatar’s development in sport is built on a far-sighted vision alongside years of hard work and commitment. Team Qatar athletes grew in an environment supported by world class development programmes and state-of-the-art sport facilities as they are paving the way in inspiring future generations to represent Team Qatar.

Source: Olympic Committee

Moscow -The draw for the Beach Volleyball Tournament at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 was completed in Moscow on Monday with 24 men’s and 24 women’s teams scheduled to participate in the event in the Japanese capital starting on July 24.

Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan were drawn in Pool C and will take on World No 5 Jacob Gibb and Taylor Crabb of the United States, World No 18 Adrian Carambula and Enrico Rossi of Italy and World No 19 Adrian Heidrich and Mirco Gerson of Switzerland.

The Beach Volleyball tournament at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be held at Shiokaze Park. The preliminaries will take place from July 24 to 31 and be followed by the elimination round matches from August 1 to 7.

The women’s medal matches will be played on Friday, August 6 and the men’s on Saturday, August 7.

Source: Qatar Olympic Committee

Zagreb- Almoez Ali’s strike in the 68th minute helped Qatar beat El Salvador 1-0 in a friendly match at the Aldo Dorsina stadium in Pula city, Croatia, on Sunday.

It was the final warm-up match for Qatar before the Asian Champions embark on their historic trip to the United States for the Gold Cup.

The tournament’s draw placed Qatar, participating as a guest team for the first time in the competition’s history, in Group D alongside Panama, Grenada and Honduras.

Team Qatar will play their first Gold Cup match against Panama on July 13.

Source: Qatar Olympic Committee

Zagreb-Team Qatar’s Coach Felix Sanchez on Thursday announced a 23-member squad to participate in the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2021.

At the Gold Cup, debutants and Asian Cup champions Qatar will play their Group matches against Honduras, Grenada and Panama in Group D.

Team Qatar will play their first Gold Cup match against Panama on July 13.

The Asian champions will play their other Group D matches against Grenada on July 17 and Honduras on July 20.

The top two teams from the four groups will advance to the quarter-finals on July 25.

Qatar Squad:

Saad Al Sheeb, Meshaal Barsham, Yusuf Hassan, Abdelkarim Hassan, Tariq Salman, Ahmed Suhail, Musab Kheder, Bassam Al Rawi, Homan Ahmed, Boualem Khoukhi, Mohammed Waad, Assim Madebo, Karim Boudiaf, Ismail Mohammed, Abdullah Al Ahrak, Abdulaziz Hatem, Akram Afif, Hassan Al Haydos, Youssef Abdurisag, Almoez Ali, Mohammed Muntari and Ahmed Alaaeldin.

Source: Qatar Olympic Committee

Doha- The Qatar Swimming Association started its preparations to host the 28th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Aquatics Championships, which will be held from August 19-22 at Hamad Aquatics Centre.

In this context, the event’s organizing committee held a meeting headed by Secretary General of the Qatar Swimming Association Talal Al Darwish, in the presence of board members and heads of working committees, to discuss the arrangements for the event.

The 28th GCC Aquatics Championships was scheduled to take place last year 2020 before the GCC Swimming organizing committee decided to move the championship to this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 27th GCC Aquatics Championships was held in Kuwait in 2019, where Team Qatar claimed first place in the age groups for the fourth time in a row after winning 34 medals, including 17 gold medals, 10 silver medals and 7 bronze medals.

It is worth noting that the Qatar Swimming Association will also organize the 5th leg of the FINA Swimming World Cup 2021 form October 21.

Source: Qatar Olympic Committee

Doha-Japan’s Hidenobu Yonekura on Saturday qualified for the next month’s Tokyo Olympics by winning the men’s vault final during the 13th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup at the Aspire Dome.

The Doha leg was specifically designed by FIG for individual specialists and was applicable to those who couldn’t qualify to the Olympics through the 2018-2019 World Championships.

Before heading into the vault final, South Korea’s Shin Jeahwan led the overall rankings. But Yonekura overtook the Korean with a score of 15.016 in the final on Saturday that earned him a ticket to Tokyo. Igor Radivilov and Andrey Medvedev finished second and third respectively on the podium.

Italy’s 2006 world all-around champion Vanessa Ferrari finally grabbed the opportunity to win the women’s floor final which also earned her a ticket to the Summer Games next month. The floor Olympic qualifying spot was up for grabs, and the race was between her and compatriot Lara Mori.

Mori led the floor rankings ahead of the final, and Ferrari needed to either win the final, or place second but ahead of Mori with a score higher than 13.266 to secure the top floor ranking spot. The 30-year-old collected 14.266 points for her rhythm and acrobatic style on the floor. Mori finished second (13.633) while Brazil’s Lorrane Oliveira (12.633) came third.

Hungarian Zsofia Kovacs, who finished fifth, and Ukrainian Diana Varinska (seventh) have already qualified for the Olympics before the Doha event.

Turkey’s reigning European champion Ferhat Arican was confidence personified on the parallel bars. The 27-year-old combined grace and rhythm to pick up the gold (15.566 points).

Petro Pakhniuk, who won a gold with the Ukraine team at the European Championships last December, finished second followed by Brazil’s Caio Souza.

Source: Qatar Olympic Committee