By John Verghese
A 39-member squad will represent Qatar in the inaugural edition of the Asian Beach Games to be held in Bali, Indonesia from October 18-26.
Qatar will participate in five events, beach volleyball, beach handball, beach soccer, marathon swimming and water polo at the Games which will have the participation of a total of 45 nations in 19 disciplines.
Tariq Said al-Ali, technical affairs consultant, Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) has been named the Chef de Mission of the 71-member Qatar delegation.
Al-Ali has revealed that Qatar's best hopes are in beach volleyball and beach handball events.
"The volleyball team has experience having participated at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha and they have also been training hard since the last two months like the other teams. So our best chances are in volleyball. But at the same time I am hopeful about the handball, swimming, soccer and water polo teams springing a surprise," al-Ali told Gulf Times yesterday.
"All the teams have been training in simulated conditions at various beaches in the country and our soccer team is currently continuing its training sessions in Malaysia.
"We have not set any target for the team at the Games but as it would be a new event for a large number of participants from Asia barring a few countries, there is a possibility of our teams staging a good performance," he revealed.
"As this is a first of its kind event, most countries would be unknown quantity but I am sure with greater exposure we will improve."
Al-Ali also hoped that such events would increase interest in beach sport in Qatar in the coming years. "Qatar is a peninsula and such events should help in popularising beach sport. Though weather in Qatar is warm for nearly six months in a year, I feel the youth of the country could participate in these events under floodlights during summer and all through the day during the mild winter."
Asked about measures to check the doping menace, the Chef de Mission said all the participating federations of the QOC had been issued the regulations and procedures for doping control as required by the organising committee of the Asian Beach Games and he hoped it would be strictly followed.
"We want the event to be totally drug free. If any of our participants are found violating any of these requirements, the QOC will deal with them firmly," he explained.
Hamad al-Hajri (beach soccer), Khalifa Teyseer al-Jassim (beach handball), Hassan Yousuf al-Mula (beach volleyball), Khalid Abdulla Mohamed (marathon swimming) and Ahmed Mohamed Janahi (water polo) have been named team managers for the Games, which will be a biennial event from this year.
Also featuring in the delegation are Eissa al-Harami (deputy chairman) and Hassan al-Mohammadi (media delegation head).
Meanwhile, Chef de Mission al-Ali, Tariq Caraf (communications officer) and the delegation secretary Abdulla Zaroug will leave for Bali tomorrow to attend the delegation registration meeting on October 12. |
