The Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) yesterday awarded Cross Country World Cup Desert Rally Championship champion Mohamed al-Meer with the FIA trophy he won as top driver in the T2 category.
QMMF celebrated al-Meer’s big success with QMMF President Abdulrahman bin Abdullatif al-Mannai presenting him the trophy with QMMF Executive Director Amro al-Hamad.
The event was originally supposed to be hosted by the FIA but it was put off following the coronavirus pandemic.
Al-Mannai expressed his happiness over the award of the T2 World Championship to al-Meer, stressing that the Qatari driver has achieved a great achievement for Qatari sports.  
Al-Mannai said the QMMF waited for the right time to award to al-Meer adhering to all the precautionary measures and preventive measures to preserve the safety of everyone.
He said: “We received two awards from FIA – one of Mohamed al-Meer and the second for QMMF in recognition of this achievement. It was an opportunity for us at this time to honour our hero and congratulate him on his achievement.
“Praise be to God, there is Qatari supremacy in the T2 category in the world championship where we have had a diversity of champions. Mohamed al-Meer’s world title was preceded by Adel Hussein in 2016 and Sheikh Hamad bin Eid. This shows that this category is suitable for Qatar, both in terms of cars and Qatari drivers’ success.
“We also hope that this coronation will act as an incentive for Meer and the rest from Qatar to excel in the future,” he added.
A delighted al-Meer expressed great happiness on the honour. “I thank and congratulate the people of Qatar. I thank God on this great achievement, especially since my goal was to participate for the first time in the world championship for Qatar.
“It was not easy to get the title and now it has made me ambitious. I will compete next season in the higher category T1 and the focus will be to excel and succeed,” said al-Meer.
Al-Hamad also applauded al-Meer’s achievement. “Despite the difficulties faced, al-Meer made his way aggressively to emerge as the world champion. He’s our hero. I’m sure this success will keep him motivated enough in future as well since reaching the top is easy but staying there is difficult and requires great effort and hard work,” he said.