Aspire Zone is continuing its successful journey towards sports excellence with its efforts to promote a sporting culture within the local community in line with Qatar’s National Development Strategy for the development of the sporting sector.  
 Over the last 12 months, AZF has continued to make significant progress towards its vision, further cementing its reputation as a leading sporting hub for decision makers, community members and sporting icons worldwide, and as an essential element of athletes’ journeys to excellence.
 By mid-2016, AZF set another world record when it re-turfed Al Sadd SC Stadium in under 14 hours and 40 minutes. The new turf was developed by the Qatar Turf Research Centre, located within Aspire Zone, the first of its kind in the Middle East.    
 In the programming field, the Department of Information Technology at AZF has developed an application for the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy. The new app is designed to keep track of the welfare of labourers working on 2022 projects, providing an efficient tool to help the SC monitor contractors’ compliance with the its stringent Workers’ Welfare Standards, which ensure workers’ rights are protected from the moment they arrive in Qatar right through to their repatriation.
 Towards the end of 2016, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, in cooperation with AZF, revealed an innovative cooled helmet that has been designed and developed by researchers from Qatar University to reduce the skin temperature of construction workers by up to 10 degrees centigrade.
During 2016, AZF achieved success at different levels. Early last year, Aspire Zone Foundation inaugurated the west expansion of Aspetar as a part of the hospital’s efforts to help athletes achieve the highest levels of performance through its facilities and services.
One of Aspire Academy’s graduates, High Jumper Mutaz Barshim, claimed Qatar’s first-ever silver medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, making him a role model for student-athletes at Aspire Academy and a source of inspiration for a new generation of young Qatari athletes.
The end of last year also saw the completion of the “Kun Riyadi” (Be an Athlete) project, a unique Athlete Development Pathway (ADP) model developed by the Qatar Olympic Committee in partnership with Aspire Academy that seeks to produce a new generation of Qatari sporting champions.
 Furthermore, Aspire-owned Belgian club KAS Eupen was promoted to the Belgian First Division, marking yet another success for the club and an opportunity for Aspire Academy’s graduates to take part in other prestigious football tournaments in Europe. Aspire Academy alumni played a crucial role in Eupen’s strong performance in the 2015/16 season, with Striker Akram Afif scoring six goals in 16 games.
 Aspire Zone Foundation has set up a number of world-class events that marked it as a leading sporting hub in Qatar and the region. Some of the key events hosted by the Foundation and its member organisations include the ‘Challenges in Football Injuries’ medical conference, hosted by Aspetar in partnership with the FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence in Doha and the International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine (ISAKOS).  Aspire Zone Foundation, in partnership with the Qatar Athletics Federation, and the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU), successfully held the second edition of the IAU 50km World Championship, with over 100 athletes from 20 different countries taking part. Held in conjunction with that tournament, Aspire Zone also hosted the 6.50K International Race for local community members, providing local amateur runners with the opportunity to compete against the best athletes in ultrarunning.  
Other highly popular local events organised by the Foundation as part of its efforts to promote a sporting culture and healthy lifestyles among local community members include Qatar’s Strongest Man, the Aspire Torch Staircase Run, the first Aspire Water Polo competition in Qatar, the Aspire Banks Tournament and the Aspire Embassies Tournament.  As with every year, Aspire Zone regularly hosts elite training camps for top-tier athletes and sports teams, attracting the likes of Bayern Munich and Zenit St Petersburg in 2016. With a combined total of 11 training camps over the year, these training camps nurture elite sporting talent, allowing athletes to compete at their maximum potential.