17 Feb 2016
Doha, 17 February 2016. The “Aspire Qatar Junior & Cadet Open” – jointly organised by the Qatar Table Tennis Association (QTTA) and Aspire Academy – kicked off today. Running until 21st February, 82 young table tennis players from 18 countries will compete in the tournament.
The first day of competition involved boy and girl teams competing in the junior (U18s) and cadet (U15s) categories. Three teams from Aspire Academy are taking part. One of those teams is made up of Mohammed Abdulwahhab and his teammate, Slovenian Darko Jorgic – current European Junior champion in table tennis doubles. They are the top seeds in the competition and won their first game 3-0 against opponents from Palestine. Commenting on the win, Aspire Academy table tennis coach Daniel Rojnic said: “They started very well, but the competition here is very good. Teams from Thailand, Bahrain or Jordan in particular have to be amongst the favourites in this competition.”
In the cadets team competition, two teams are representing Qatar. They are the pairing of Nawaf Al-Malki and Abdulaziz Al-Abdulla, and Yousef Ali Hussain and Abdulaziz Mohd. “This is the first time for a number of years that this competition has taken place in Doha. That’s great for us because we usually have to travel a lot to take part in any of the 30 tournaments taking place around the world. It’s also good for the players to compete in front of their home crowd,“ said Rojnic, who is looking forward to the singles and doubles competition.
“Organising this tournament and hosting the world’s best junior & cadet players has been one of our strategic goals and something that we have worked hard to achieve. We strongly believe in the importance of these tournaments and the role that they play in positively influencing our young champions, enabling them to gain experience and exposure to talented players from all over the world. Hosting this tournament is a sign of the strong cooperation and partnership between QTTA and Aspire Academy, which is specifically designed to support the development of table tennis in Qatar,” said Khalil Al Mohannadi, President of Qatar Table Tennis Association and Chairman of the tournament.
Ivan Bravo, Director General of Aspire Academy and Chairman of the tournament added: “Table tennis is one of the pillars of our sports programme here at Aspire Academy. Through hard work, dedication and determination, our student-athletes, coaches and players have been able to succeed in a number of major youth competitions, including the GCC, Arab & West Asian Championships. We are extremely proud that a number of our graduates have successfully made the transition to Qatar’s senior national team. We hope that the players taking part in this tournament from around the world will benefit not only from competing at an international level and the learning experience this provides, but that they will also make the most of the chance to get to know the country better and to learn about Qatari culture during their time here.”