30 Oct 2018
Doha, 30 October 2018. On Monday, Aspire Academy’s athletics student-athetes and staff gathered in the Olympia Auditorium to celebrate the achievements of Aspire-athlete Owaab Barrow at the recent Youth Olympic Games in Argentina.
Besides looking back at the Qatari’s performances in Buenos Aires, that ended with a gold medal in the 110m hurdles event, Aspire’s Head Coach Athletics, Tom Crick and Senior Coach Sprints, Lee Christopher talked about the preparation of Owaab towards the big event and the challenges he had to overcome in the past year, before going to Argentina. Crick also stressed the fruitful collaboration between Aspire Academy and the Qatar Athletics Federation that has led to many outstanding achievements in the past.
In a brief Q&A session titled “Getting better every day”, Owaab told his side of the story and shared his experiences with the fellow Aspire student-athletes. He remembered how his performances improved step by step thanks to the hard work and determination he had put in and also thanks to the great support system of coaches and staff that he had along the way. To him, the gold medal was the result of many different factors. “Determination and focus is very important. And it does not stop after the training session, because your sleep or diet also affect your performance in the race.”
Looking at the challenges ahead, Owaab said: “I want to make the most of my opportunities and competing with the best in the world in 2019 is one of my great goals.” That would be, of course, at the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha. This major event is only one of the possible next steps for the 17-year-old. In 2020, he will still be able to compete in the IAAF World U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya and if his progress keeps going on like this, he might also be a potential participant of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.