26 Oct 2019
Doha, 27 October 2019. Aspire Academy was well represented at the 8th Torch Staircase Run held at the Torch Hotel on Friday 25th October 2019. For the first time Aspire Academy entered a team of students as eleven (11) students took part. The run up the stairs of the 300m tall hotel, presents a challenge, comprising of 51 floors with 1304 steps to get to the finish line. This year’s competition was run in the following categories, Kids (8-11 years old) Boys and Girls, race up to the 19th floor. Adults (18 – 39 years old) Male and Female, race up to the 51st floor and Masters (above 40 years old) Male and Female race up to the 51st floor.
Aspire student athlete Abdulsalam Arif Alawi came first with a time of 9.58 minutes while Muwafaq Faqeer Algadi was second and Abdalla Nabil Adam came in third. Nasser Abdullah Al Hajri, Director of Communication and Public Relations at Aspire Zone Foundation presented the three winning Aspire Academy students with medals. Speaking after the race winner Abdulsalam Arif Alawi said, “Being my first time to run this race l just focused on running well and to keep going until the end not worrying about the other runners or the time. I am pleased to first among Aspire student athletes”. Meanwhile 2nd placed student athlete, Muwafaq Faqeer Algadi added, “This is the first-time l run this race and it was a good finish for me and after training hard for this race l am happy with my performance. It was a big challenge for me, but thanks be to God l got a good position.
Seven Aspire Academic staff entered the race with Mohamed Al Obaidly the Qatari national finishing second in the Masters men’s category behind the winner and defending champions, Britain’s Andrew Jones while Croatian Ivo Kovacic finished third. Abdullah Aman Al-Khater, director of Venues and Events at Aspire Logistics, awarded the winners with medals. Academy staff members, Mishaal Al Kuwari who was running the race for the first time praised the concept of the event, “I feel good to be taking place alongside fellow Aspire Academy staff as well as the students athletes. It was a tough ask but we all did well to reach the top and had fun doing so.”. His fellow Aspire Academy staff colleague, Jorn Erickson was equally positive of the merits of participating in the Torch staircase run, “We are delighted that we could enter the students-athletes this year and they seemed to have enjoyed the run as did the staff. It’s an event that brings families together and helps foster working together for good causes and l am pleased that as Aspire Academy we have played our part while taking on a challenging sporting event at the same time. As for the run, every year it’s becoming a harder challenge for me, but l am determined to better my time every with each run that l undertake.”