29 May 2016
Doha, 29 May 2016. Aspire Academy signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Qatar Fencing Federation (QFF) on Sunday to establish a National Fencing Pathway (NFP) programme. Ivan Bravo, Director General of Aspire Academy, and Saleh Al Hamidi, the President of the Qatar Fencing Federation, signed the agreement with the objective of establishing a world-class programme that develops athletes and prepares them for successful participation in Asian and international competitions, including Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The signing ceremony was attended by QFF board member Fahd Al Mulla and several officials from Aspire Academy, including: Professor Tim Cable, Director of Sports Science; Markus Egger, Director of Strategy and Acting Director of Sport; and Dr Hazem Fareed, Deputy Sports Director at Aspire Academy,. The agreement is another example of Aspire Academy’s commitment to nurture generations of student-athletes in different sports that Qatar can compete in on regional and international levels, including at the Olympics.
QFF and the Academy have explored additional potential opportunities for improving integration and knowledge sharing in pursuit of increasing the number of international and Olympic medals won by Asian sportspeople.
Commenting on the signing the agreement, Ivan Bravo, Director General of Aspire Academy said: “Today, we sign a collaboration agreement with another sports federation. From the Academy’s perspective, we believe that fencing is one of the sports that Qatar can put a lot of focus on to develop the champions of the future. Our coaches, sports science team and sports departments have worked very closely with QFF to put together an effective collaboration strategy that enables us to identify talent among young student athletes early on. A number of targets and milestones have also been included in the MOU, which we look forward to working towards together. I can only say thank you to QFF and that we at Aspire look forward to fencing becoming one of the key sports for success towards international championships in Qatar.”
“I would like to thank Aspire Academy for giving us the chance to work with one of the best sports organisations in the world. Our collaboration will give us the opportunity to develop a reservoir of world-class athletes in Qatar with accompanying expectations around achieving international results in the upcoming four years. This will give us a good start on the road towards making fencing one of the important sports in Qatar. We hope this agreement helps not only QFF, but all fencers in Qatar to reach the Asian and world levels,” said Saleh Al Hamidi, President of the Qatar Fencing Federation.
Under the agreement, both parties will review and develop improvements to the national programme on an ongoing basis. The program will highlight three key phases of athlete development: how to recruit athletes, how to develop them, and how to support top-athletes at senior age category on their pursuit for international success.