Doha, 7/5/2008
Qatar
Sports
Club in Doha will witness on next Friday, at
5:50 PM, the competitions events of Qatar Super
Grand Prix-2008. This international sporting
event polarizes tens of well-known athletics
stars every year, as this year the number will
reach more that 210 men and women competitors
representing 53 countries. This worldwide known
group of elite champions include; Alison Flex
(World Champion in the 200m Event, USA), Warner
Jeremy (200m Event, USA), Blanka Flasic (High
Jump, Croatia), Samuel Francis (Best Asian and
Arab Record Holder in the 100m Event, Qatar),
and the Norwegian Andréas (World Champion in the
Javelin event).
Nearly 25 percent of men participants represent
the Arab region, while only one Arab women
athlete is participating in this international
event among 83 other women athletes who
represent various countries from all over the
world. This, however, reflects the poor
percentage of Arab female representation in such
worldwide known sporting events. According to
the pre-final statistics, only 37 men athletes
representing Arab states will participate among
the total number of 119 athletes competing in
the events of the Grand Prix this year. The drop
in number occurs in women categories. Last year
version witnessed the participation of three
Arab women athletes form Bahrain, Algeria and
Morocco, while the current edition of Qatar
Grand Prix in 2008 will host only one woman
competitor from the Arab region, the Moroccan
Ibtisam Khloud who will compete in the 1500m
event.
Seventeen
athletes will represent the Qatari participation
in the 2008 version of Qatar Super Grand Prix,
while Saif Shaheen will not take part. Qatari
athletes will compete in 12 events. It is worth
notice that last year version witnessed a Qatari
participation in only 10 athletes in 6 events,
therefore, the present participation percentage
marks a higher development in this regard.
Samuel Francis of Qatar is going to take part in
this international event, as he is Qatar’s
champion who holds the Asian record in the 100 m
(9.99s) and the 6th best world ranking order in
the 100m event during 2007. In addition, the
athlete Arif Ibrahim Bandar will compete for
Qatar to guarantee some good results.
In the 800m event, two athletes will represent
Qatar; Adam Ali and Mus’ab Abdulrahman, while in
the 200m event Samuel Francis will compete
representing Qatar. Moreover, Thamir Ali (gold
medal winner in the 3rd Asian Indoor
Championship-Doha) and Ali Kamal will represent
Qatar in the 1500m event. While Saif Shaeen will
not participate in the current Grand Prix, two
Qatari athletes will represent Qatar in the
3000m steeplechase, James Quwela and Felix
Kibora among other 13 Kenyan athletes. The 110m
hurdles event will also witness a Qatari
participation through Mohamed Eisa Althawdi
competing against 4 American athletes, one form
Canada and one from the United Kingdom.
The
400m hurdles will include Qatar’s Mubarek Faraj
Alnoubi, while in the 3000m event other Qatari
athletes will take part; Abubaker Ali and
Mustafa Ahmed. The triple jump event, on the
other hand, will witness the participation of
Qatar’s Babaker Ibrahim and Abdulaziz Al-Hamadi,
while Rashid Aldosari and Ahmed Deeb will
represent Qatar in the discus throw event.
Finally, twenty athletes in 12 events except the
javelin event will represent the other Arab and
GCC participations.
Qatar Super Grand Prix always involve achieving
records by the participating champions. The past
year version witnessed, for instance, the
fastest time in the 400m event reached by Alison
Flex who is also the world champion of the 200m
event (21.81s-Osaka, 2007), while her best
result in the 400m event was achieved in
Stockholm during 2007 (49.70s). It is worth
notice that Doha is one of the five cities that
host the IAAF Grand Prix, along with Lausanne,
Monaco, Stockholm, and London the host city of
2012 Olympic Games.
