Al Shaqab to represent Qatar at the FEI World Endurance Junior Championship in France

Qatar endurance national team will be represented at the World Endurance Junior Championship by Sheikh Abdulla Mishal Hamad al-Thani, Khulood  Mohammed al-Khori, Abdul Hadi Hamad al-Marri, Nasser Jumah al-Mohannadi and Ali Mohammed al-Hammadi.

By Sports Reporter/Doha

Al Shaqab, sponsor of the Endurance Tarbes-Ibos race every season is also the main sponsor for the World Endurance Championship Junior 2013.

Al Shaqab, home of the Qatar endurance national team will be represented at the World Endurance Junior Championship by Sheikh Abdulla Mishal Hamad al-Thani with the stallion Quoka’in de L’Auronce, Khulood  Mohammed al-Khori with the mare Quesbel du Vergnet, Abdul Hadi Hamad al-Marri  with Oscar du Guide, Nasser Jumah al-Mohannadi with Halte a Tout and finally Ali Mohammed al-Hammadi with the mare, Odyssee de Cruz. The qualification came after the Qatari athletes successfully completed five qualifications CEI 120/ CEI two star and three qualification races for the horses, in the past two years.

Al Shaqab also deployed a delegation to Tarbes-Ibos France, led by its Director Fahad al-Qahtani,  team leader Mohammed Tahous al-Naimi, coach and trainer of the  Junior Endurance team Chef Jason Kirk, veterinary physician Dr Marcelo Conte and Equine Physiotherapist Renee Saxby.

The Endurance village will be set up in the Tarbes forest ‘Bois du Commandeur’ at Ibos. Each loop of the competition will start and finish at the Endurance Village.

The championship will kick start at 7:00am (GMT+2) tomorrow. The CEIYJ (four star) will be composed of four loops:

For a start, a loop of 35km followed by hold time of 40 minutes, another loop of 32km followed by hold time of 40minutes, a third loop of 33km followed by hold time of 50 minutes and the final 20km loop named ‘AL SHAQAB’ in honour of its main sponsor.

Fahad al-Qahtani explained the involvement of Al Shaqab during the organisation of the World junior Championship 2013. “Al Shaqab provides innovative, educational and competitive opportunities in all equestrian arts, and sponsoring this event is an integral part of supporting a new generation of winners.  Al Shaqab has a long standing tradition associated to numerous achievements with the Endurance discipline. By encouraging the youth to become an actor of the sport, we are just fulfilling a tradition, that we inherited from our father and  from their grand-father before them.”

“We created and managed a team of promising riders from the ground and got them to qualify and participate at the World Endurance Championship and represent the State of Qatar. All of it in a very tight and challenging time frame. This junior team has already proven its worth and we only hope now to win the world title,” team leader Mohammed Tahous al-Naimi explained.

Coach and trainer Jason Kirk, concluded by expressing similar feelings and shared his expectations: “The AL SHAQAB Junior team qualified in order to participate in the World Championship and we are now working very hard to reach the first step of the podium. We were one of the first teams to arrive and train on site, with a working regime that included different distances and speed and hopefully this will pay off by a win.”

The FEI World Endurance championship will see around hundred participants from the four corners of the globe compete for the world crown.