09 Apr 2018
Kuwait City, 9 April 2018. Team Qatar made up of Aspire Academy graduate and current student athletes brought home nine (9) medals from the recent U-20 Gulf Cooperation Council Athletics Championships held in Kuwait from 5-7 April 2018. Team Qatar ended the competition with four golds, two silvers and 3 bronzes and to add to this haul a new GCC Junior record in Discus, courtesy of Mohamed Ibrahim Moaaz during the competition held at Kuwait Amateur Athletic Federation track.
Student athlete Moaaz notched double gold, first his discus throw of 64.24m set a new GCC Junior record before his personal best of 18.70m in Shotput brought the second gold. Ahmad Al-Haj made sure there were two Aspire student athletes on the discus medals podium after his throw of 51.35 m secured third place for bronze. More gold for Team Qatar was to follow when Aspire graduate, Muhand Saifeldin joined Moaaz in winning double gold, when he came first in 1500m and 3000m Steeplechase races. Muhannad clocked 3:48.18 for his victory in 1500m race. There was a credible debut result for student athlete, Hafiz Ali in the same 1500m race. Hafiz Ali finished 4th with a time 4:13 in his first international race. Saoud Al Humaidi came third in the 110m hurdles and claimed his second medal with a blistering 21.64 second run in the 200m final to finish second. Saoudi has been growing in strength and performance since making a credible debut appearance at the IAAF Athletics U-18 World Championships in Kenya last year. Rashid Al-Suwaidi had to agonizingly settle for silver after his personal best long jump of 7.10m. Rashid had been leading in Round 4 before the athlete from KSA upstaged him by jumping 2cm further to claim gold. Team Qatar wound up the meeting with a well-earned bronze from the 4 x 100m relay team of Rashid Al-Suwaidi, Jaber Al-Mamari, Abdulrahman AlKhater and Saoud Al-Humaidi who clocked 42.19s to finish in third place.
The Championships featured teams from Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and hosts Kuwait. In his closing remarks, Mr Sayyar Al-Enezi, secretary general of Kuwait Amateur Athletic Federation, said the junior athletes were the future of the track and field sport in the Gulf countries. Al-Enezi, also manager of the championship, thanked the Gulf countries for participating in the tournament. Team Qatar hopes to continue their fine form at the Arab Junior Athletics meeting to be held in o Amman, Jordan from 19- 21st April 2018.
Some other results from Kuwait
Jaber 4th 100m time of 10.95 (Headwind) PB
1500m: Hafiz Ali 4th time of 4:13 (First international race)
200m: Jaber 4th time of 22.06 (PB)
High Jump: Abdulla Fadaag distance of 170cm
Hammer: Mohammed Al-Emadi distance of 47.52m
PB = personal best.