Saudi Arabia’s Fahad al-Sahli and Britain’s Leigh Osborne won the men’s and women’s titles in the first ever “Esrar” obstacle race organised by Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) and ‘Diverse’, a newly established Qatari business that specialises in sports events management, yesterday at Aspire.
Al-Sahli completed the race in 19 minutes and 17 seconds, while Kuwaiti Jassem Alostath finished took 21 minutes and 09 seconds to finish second. Qatari participant Khamis Waleed finished in third place with a time of 21 minutes and 30 seconds.
In the women’s category, British contestant Osborne won first place after finishing the race in 25 minutes. She was followed in second place by Romanian Nicoleta Hodorogea, who finished just three seconds behind. Qatari contestant Reem al-Muftah came in third after finishing the race in 28 minutes and 46 seconds.
“Esrar”, which is Arabic for determination, involved more than 250 local and GCC participants, who pushed themselves to the limits in overcoming a range of specially designed obstacles.  
Winners were awarded in the presence of senior members from the organising committee, including Nasser Abdullah al-Hajri, Director of PR and Communication at AZF,  Abdullah al-Khater, Manager of Events at Aspire Zone Foundation, Al Anoud al-Misnad, a senior organising member from AZF, and Khaled Saadoun al-Kuwari, CEO of ‘Diverse’.
A number of well-known sporting figures also took part including Olympic medallist, Mutaz Barshim as well as prominent local media personalities such as Mohamed Saadoun al-Kuwari from BeIN Sports, Ali Al Meslemani from Al Jazeera, and Sabah al-Kuwari from Al Rayyan TV.  
Commenting on the event, Nasser Abdullah al-Hajri, Director of PR and Communication at AZF, said: “Today we launched a new sport in Qatar. Even though this is the first event of its kind, the turnout from participants has been very encouraging. We’re especially thrilled to see that participants from across the region travelled to Qatar to take part, including from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. AZF is always keen to find new activities to engage all members of the community, no matter what their age.  “This is a key part of our mission to promote a sports culture and encourage active, healthy lifestyles in Qatar. Our partnership with Diverse has been very successful and reflects our commitment to supporting young Qatari entrepreneurs. I’m sure we’ll find many more opportunities for further collaboration with them as well as with other local entrepreneurs who have unique and innovative ideas to offer.”
Commenting on his victory,  al-Sahli said: “This race is relatively new to the Middle East. It was quite challenging because an obstacle course is a full-body work out and tests very specific sets of skills for activities like wall climbing, the commando crawl and monkey bar. My hope is that we’ll see more events like this in the region, and greater numbers of local and regional sports enthusiasts taking part. The quality of the planning undertaken by Aspire Zone Foundation was exceptional. The organisers were very welcoming and accepted our suggestions and recommendations for future years. I look forward to coming to Doha again for next year’s edition.”
Speaking about her participation in the race, Qatari participant, Reem al-Muftah said: “The standard of competition was very high, and the obstacles were really challenging, particularly the monkey bar. I’m very proud to have achieved third place. It was a really fun event and I encourage more people, and particularly women, to participate next year. I’m very impressed with Aspire Zone Foundation for introducing this new sport to Qatar. The level of organisation involved in this competition was great, and I hope to participate in more of AZF’s events in the future.”
The ‘Esrar’ obstacle course race is the first of its kind in Qatar. It was open to sports enthusiasts, athletes and non-athletes, men and women. The race consisted of 14 obstacles including the commando crawl, tyres split steps, 6ft wall and 8 ft. wall and inverted wall climbing, balance beam, sand bang carrying, vertical cargo net and monkey bar.