15 Nov 2015
Doha, 15 November 2015. Aspire Academy today inaugurated the two-week long “Aspire OCA Youth Camp” run jointly with the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), the governing body of sports in Asia. The camp is organised for a specially selected group of the region’s rising sport stars, and will run until November 29.
One hundred and twenty athletes aged 15 to 17, who were nominated by their respective national Olympic committees, will participate in training and conditioning in sports including the high jump and table tennis at Aspire Academy’s state-of-the-art facilities and under the guidance of its expert coaches. During the camp, the Academy’s sports science team will also collect data on the athletes’ performance and share this with the athletes and their personal coaches.
The OCA Aspire Academy camp will enhance the visiting athletes’ development and performance, allowing them to train in conditions they are unaccustomed to. Along with insight provided by the sports science data, the camp will help identify specific areas of development for each athlete to focus on. This will enable them to develop tailored and optimized training programmes and fulfil their championship potential.
Commenting on the camp, Markus Egger, Director of Sport at Aspire Academy, said: “We are delighted to host this training and competition camp and to work so closely again with the OCA. The number of participants has seen a significant increase, which reflects the overall success of the camp’s contribution to the development of future generation of elite athletes from the region. We look forward to another fruitful two weeks, and wish all athletes the best of luck”.
The athletes were officially welcomed on Sunday morning at the Academy’s auditorium and Vahid Kardany, representative of the OCA, was happy about the huge number of attendants: “It has been quite an effort for us and Aspire Academy to organize this camp and we hope that you all are going to benefit from your time here. We hope that you all keep working hard, so we will see you again at Asian Championships and other international competitions in the future.”
On behalf of Aspire Academy’s athletics program, head coach John Nuttall spoke to the audience and stressed the international aspect of the camp: “Here you have the chance to train with people you don’t know and this is an opportunity to learn, because in the end you need to leave the local competitions behind and compete in international environments. Also make use of the chance to get to know Qatar and learn about a different culture.”