05 May 2026
Aspire Academy student-athletes and a graduate won four medals for Qatar at the Arab Under-20 Athletics Championships in Tunisia.
The highlight was a gold medal for Abdelrahman Mohamed Ibrahim in the hammer with a throw of 72.79 metres.
Grade 11 athlete Abdulla Al-Abdulla won silver in the pole vault with a clearance of 4.80m, equalling his personal best.
There was also a personal best for another grade 11 athlete, Mahamat Abkar Hissein, as he won bronze in the 110m hurdles in a time of 14 seconds. His time meets the qualifying standard of 14.05s for the event at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Eugene, USA, in August. Aboubakar Idriss, who is in grade 9, finished 5th in the same final.
Graduate Hamad Dawi Sultan was also on the podium with a bronze in the discus, throwing 58.67m.
Mahamat Abkar Hissein, Abdelrahman Mohamed Ibrahim and Hamad Dawi Sultan all met the qualifying standards for their events at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Eugene, USA, in August.
Qatar won a total of 12 medals at the championships, which featured over 320 athletes from 15 Arab nations, including five gold, two silver and five bronze.
Meanwhile, another Aspire Academy graduate, Bassem Hemeida, was part of Qatar’s 4 x 400m relay team that qualified for the 2027 World Athletics Championships in Beijing, China.
The team earned a place in China next year after setting a new Qatari national record of 2:59.83 to finish second in their heats at the World Athletics Relay event in Gaborone, Botswana.
Unfortunately for the Qatar quartet, they were disqualified (the specific reason has yet to be publicised) from the final after initially finishing seventh.