Aspire Academy signed a partnership agreement, in conjunction with the Italian Fencing Federation and the Qatar Weightlifting and Fencing Federation, yesterday to provide young Qatari and Italian fencers quality training and top competition opportunities.
As part of this new partnership, Aspire Academy will hold annual training camps for Italy’s top young fencers, and the Italian Fencing Federation will allow Qatari athletes to be included in Italian domestic competitions including the U14, U17, U20 and the Senior circuits, giving them international exposure.
Whilst the Italian fencers are training in Qatar, Aspire Academy will provide sports science services for them, including strength and conditioning assessments, physiology, biomechanics, performance analysis, sports psychology, sports nutrition, physiotherapy and medical support in case of injuries.
Attended by the Italian ambassador to Qatar, Pasquale Salzano, the partnership agreement was signed between Aspire Academy director general Ivan Bravo, Italian Fencing Federation president Giorgio Scarso and Qatar Weightlifting and Fencing Federation president Mohamed Yousef al-Mana.
“A while back, Qatar embarked on a journey whereby it decided to focus on some sports that could enable its players to compete and achieve medals on the international stage. That’s a great objective. But you have to do an incredible amount of work for it to be a possibility one day,” Bravo said. “Fencing has great potential in this country and to achieve great results, you need to work with great coaches, the best Federations and international partners.”
Scarso added: “The relationship between Qatar and Italy has always been very good in various fields, and with this important agreement, we step further into the field of sports. The Italian Federation doesn’t see this only as an opportunity to teach something but also as a true partner, so we can grow together as nations in this sport.”
For his part, al-Mana said, “Fencing is a sport that has a lot of heritage and legacy, and it’s a noble sport. For almost 120 years, we only had swords to fight with. We are proud to support Qatar’s sporting community and in turn, the whole world. This partnership agreement is not the first-of-its-kind, but cements our ongoing collaboration which has lasted for years with Aspire Academy. We hope to reach a day when our efforts help a fencer from Qatar become the best in the world. We can only achieve this [objective] by utilising the expertise of our friends Aspire Academy and the Italian Federation.”
The sponsorship agreement builds on the existing memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Aspire Academy and the Qatar Weightlifting and Fencing Federation that aims to establish a world-class programme that develops athletes and prepares them for successful participation in Asian and international competitions, including the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Related Story