03 Feb 2026
Aspire Academy student-athletes have made a strong start to 2026 with medals at international padel and swimming events, alongside a stand-out fencing performance on the global stage.
There was a gold medal at the FIP Promises Doha in the under-14’s and 10 individual gold medals across four age categories (over 18, 16-17, 14-15 and 12-13) at the 30th GCC Swimming Championships in the United Arab Emirates.
At the Doha Grand Prix fencing tournament, hosted at Aspire Academy, 16-year-old student-athlete Youssef Abdeltawab put on an impressive display of his epee skills as he won five of his seven matches at the event.
FIP Promises Doha
Grade 7 student-athlete Nawaf Al Yafei, alongside the UAE’s Hamdan Alhashimi, won the boys under-14 category of the FIP Promises Doha tournament, part of the International Padel Federation’s (FIP) global tour for youth players.
The duo qualified for the semi-finals with two straight-set wins without dropping a single game, but were then given a tough test in the final four by the Egyptian duo Aley Eino and Ezz Barakat.
Nawaf Al Yafei and Hamdan Alhashimi had to fight back from a set down to eventually win the match on a tie-break.
They went on to win the final in straight sets, beating Fares Nassar of Egypt and Yaqoub Zainal of Kuwait.
In the boys under-16 category, there were runner-up medals for grade 10 student-athlete Essa Alkuwari and Majid Alabdulla from the UAE.
The duo were also involved in a hard-fought final, but ended up losing on a tie-break to Egypt’s Zain Elbaily and Kuwait’s Sayed Hashem Almazeedi.
30th GCC Swimming Championships
Aspire Academy student-athletes and graduate Abdalla Elghamry accounted for the majority of Qatar's medals at the 30th GCC Swimming Championships in the UAE, which featured various age categories.
In total, Aspire Academy swimmers won a total of 11 of Qatar’s 12 gold medals, six of their eight silvers and nine of their 16 bronzes. Of those, there were 10 individual golds, five individual silvers and six individual bronzes.
Adam Morsy returned with a total of seven medals from events in the 14-15 age group. The grade 10 student-athlete claimed 4 individual medals, including a clean sweep of the golds in the breaststroke events (50m, 100m, and 200m), along with silver in the 200m individual medley.
He backed that up with another gold as part of the 4x100m medley relay and two bronzes in the 4x100m and 4x200m relays. Omar Azab was also part of the teams that claimed those relay medals to go with his bronze in the individual 200m breaststroke.
There was another clean sweep of gold medals in the breaststroke events as grade 11 student-athlete Rashid Al-Romaihi took all three in the 16-17 age group.
The other medal-winners were 2025 graduate Abdalla Elghamry (over 18’s), as well as student-athletes Saad Al-Sulaiti, Aziz Jelany Mohamed Ismail (both 16-17 age group), Abdulla Abdalla and Salman Al-Malki (12-13 age group).
Medals for Apire Academy swimmers at GCC Championships:
Over-18 Age Group
Abdalla Elghamry (2025 Graduate)
- Gold 200m Backstroke
- Gold 100m Backstroke
- Silver 100m Freestyle
- Bronze 50m Backstroke
16-17 Age Group
Saad Al-Sulaiti (Grade 11)
- Gold 100m Butterfly
- Bronze 200 m Butterfly
Aziz Jelany Mohamed Ismail (Grade 12)
- Silver 100m Butterfly
- Bronze 50m Butterfly
Rashid Al-Romaihi (Grade 11)
- Gold 200m Breaststroke
- Gold 100m Breaststroke
- Gold 50m Breaststroke
14-15 Age Group
Adam Morsy (Grade 10)
- Gold 200m Breaststroke
- Gold 100m Breaststroke
- Gold 50m Breaststroke
- Silver 200m Individual Medley
- Gold 4x100m Medley Relay
- Bronze 4x100m Freestyle Relay
- Bronze 4x200m Freestyle Relay
Omar Azab (Grade 9)
- Bronze 200m Breaststroke
- Gold 4x100m Medley Relay
- Bronze 4x100m Freestyle Relay
- Bronze 4x200m Freestyle Relay
12-13 Age Group
Abdulla Abdalla (Grade 8)
- Silver 200m Individual Medley
- Silver 100m Butterfly
- Bronze 200 m Freestyle
- Bronze 100 m Freestyle
- Silver 4x100m Medley Relay
- Bronze 4x100m Freestyle Relay
Salman Al-Malki (Grade 7)
- Bronze 50m Butterfly
- Silver 4x100m Medley Relay
- Bronze 4x100m Freestyle Relay
Grand Prix du Qatar for Epee
Aspire Academy student-athlete Youssef Abdeltawab put on an impressive display of his epee skills at the Doha Grand Prix fencing event. The annual Grand Prix events are a worldwide series of elite fencing tournaments organised by the sport’s world governing body, the FIE, and bring together the world’s top fencers for high‑level competition across nine host cities each season.
The youngster, who turns 17 in February, won five of his seven matches at the event. His victories came over older, more experienced fencers from around the globe, including Switzerland, Portugal, Hong Kong, China and the United Kingdom, as he progressed to the knockout stages of the Grand Prix.
His results saw him given a bye in the first knockout round, and in the second round, despite his best efforts, he lost to Portugal’s Filipe Frazao, who is ranked 90th in the world.
Another student-athlete, Abdulrahman Al Jadra, who is set to graduate this year, also progressed from his pool with two victories, but in the first knockout round, he lost very narrowly to the vastly experienced Samson Mun Hou Lee from Singapore.
Aspire Academy’s newly-appointed Senior Fencing Coach, Hugo Dergal, is confident that the performances are a solid platform for developing young fencing talent.
“I'm happy because it's only my second competition with the fencers, last week we were in Bahrain for a Junior World Cup event, and now it was a Senior Grand Prix,” the coach explained.
“The boys fought very, very well, and this tournament was all about gaining experience, so progressing from the pool is already a first step, so let’s see what we can do during the rest of the season.”
The coach explained that he tried to take the pressure off his student-athletes ahead of the event in order to learn from the experience of stepping up from junior and cadet events to a senior one.
“I explained to the student-athletes before the competition that you cannot always think about winning or losing - it's also about what you are producing on the piste and what you can achieve with your actions,” he continued.
“The risk when you are young is that you are nervous and scared as you compete at an international event, especially on home soil with the country watching you, but if you are scared, you are doing nothing to help your development.”
“I told them to take some calculated risks because this way they will gain experience, and afterwards we can analyse what is good in their game and where there is room for improvement.”
“And this way we will progress, and in the future hopefully we'll be competitive at the highest international levels.”
A third young student-athlete, Ali Alkhlif, who is in grade 12, gained valuable tournament experience at both the international and senior levels, despite not advancing past the pool stage.
Two Aspire Academy 2024 graduates, Muhammed Abdulali and Mohammed Al Hazaa, also competed at the tournament, and both won a pool match but were unable to progress to the second phase.