Momen to face Crouin in last-four

Doha- In an exciting opening match, World No.6 Tarek Momen came from behind to beat the defending champion and World No.4 Diego Elias 3-2: 11-8, 9-11, 4-11, 11-9, 11-7 in 69 minutes to book a place in the semi-finals of QTerminals Qatar Classic 2022. Tarek, who enjoys a 10-1 head-to-head record against Elias, had been showing signs of the form that saw him win the 2019 World Championships in Doha since the beginning of this tournament, and it was no surprise that he continued in this form on Thursday. The Egyptian will next be up against Victor Crouin of France, who stopped Qatar's Abdulla Al Tamimi from reaching a historical semi-final in straight sets, for a chance at another final in Doha. "I don’t know what to say, other than I’m really proud of how I fought back—especially after the third game—because I gave it everything and then I really started to feel it. I told myself between games, ‘even if you can’t walk, you need to fight until the last point," Tarek said after the match. In the other matches, Mohamed ElShorbagy reached his first Qatar Classic semi-final since 2017 in a clinical performance to knock out tournament surprise package Miguel Rodriguez in straight games. World No.17 Rodriguez produced a fantastic performance to beat World No.1 Ali Farag in round three, but was unable to consistently lay a glove on ElShorbagy, who is chasing his fourth title in Qatar. Mohamed won 11-6, 11-4, 11-7  to book a semi-final clash against world No.3 Mostafa Asal who defeated the younger ElShorbagy, Marwan, 3-1 (11-6, 7-11, 11-4, 11-2) in the third match of the day.  

Team Qatar Swimmers shine in Arab Aquatics Championship

Cairo, Egypt – Team Qatar swimmers made impressive performance on Thursday to win three medals, including gold and two bronze on the second day of Arab Aquatics Championship for age groups , which taking place in Egypt’s capital city of Cairo. Qatar’s Omar Hassan claimed the gold medal in 400m Medley Swimming ( 16-18 years), as his teammate Hamza Mahmoud seized the bronze medal in the same discipline (14-15 years) . In 50m backstroke swimming (14-15 years), Qatar Abdulla Al-Ghamdi won the bronze medal. By the end of Thursday competition, team Qatar who consists of 17 swimmers have raised up the country’s tally to 8 medals, includes one gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze.  

Tamimi continues fine form in Doha, reaches quarter-finals of Qatar Classic

Doha: Qatar's No. 1 Abdulla Al Tamimi continued with his fine form at the QTerminals Qatar Classic 2022 by securing his first-ever platinum quarter-final berth on the PSA World Tour with a straight sets (11-8, 11-8, 11-9) defeat of England’s George Parker on Wednesday. Al Tamimi, who knocked out world No. 2 Paul Coll in the previous round, went 2-0 up, winning both games 11-8. Parker, who was also aiming to reach the last eight of a platinum tournament for the first time, was ahead in the crucial third game, but Al Tamimi stormed back to eventually win 11-9, confirming a straight-sets victory. "Normally I don’t get this late into tournaments, especially platinum events," Al Tamimi said on court afterward. "Plus, I’m not really used to the off day – I enjoyed my day off yesterday, I spent some time with my kid at home and I was really happy with that." In the other matches, world No. 4 Diego Elias continued his quest to retain his title after easing past Switzerland’s Dimitri Steinmann in straight sets, 11-5, 11-4, 11-6 in 35 minutes. Steinmann, looking to reach his first ever Platinum quarter-final, started competitively and managed to get in front of Elias on a number of occasions at the beginning of the first game, before the Peruvian  settled and moved from 6-5 up to an 11-5 winner. Meanwhile, Victor Crouin continued his brilliant start to the new season by beating England’s Patrick Rooney 3-1 (11-8, 7-11, 11-4, 11-6) to reach his first Platinum-level quarter-final.  

QOC celebrates International day of Fair play

Doha- The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) has celebrated the International Day of Fair Play on Wednesday in cooperation with the International Fair Play Committee, the Ministry of Municipality and Public Works Authority 'Ashghal'. For this year, the international initiative aims to promote the spirit of fair play internationally symbolized in planting trees, to highlight our duty in preserving the environment for future generations. The International day of Fair play activities held at Doha English Speaking School, featured the participation of team Qatar athletes alongside the school students. The stars of Qatar’s women basketball team including Danah Suleiman and Sarah Khamis participated in a training session for the students and underlined the importance of fair play values as athletes. Moreover, team Qatar athletics star Abdulrhman Samba visited Doha Academy and shed light on ethical values of sport and the athletes’ mental preparations for sports events. The QOC also held a tree planting event at Towers Park with participation of Qatar national fencing team including Khalid Al Yafei, Jaber Omar, Meshaal Al Qahtani, Mohamed Zaid, Sheikha Al Abdullah and Haya Diyab. In addition to representatives from The Ministry of Municipality and The Public Work Authority “Ashghal”. On this occasion, Shiekha Asma Al-Thani, Director of QOC Marketing and Communication stressed that the International Day of Fair Play is a sports initiative organized to promote fair play and ethical values in sport. “Sustainability is our top priority to build a generation who is committed to preserve the environment and by planting trees, we aim at protecting the future of our athletes by promoting the ethics of fair play and sportsmanship.” She said. Mohamed Ali Al-Khouri, Secretary General of Expo 2023 Doha Horticulture and Director of the Department of Public Parks at the Ministry of Municipality lauded all agricultural initiatives of governmental and private companies and confirmed that Expo 2023 organizing committee is keen to support these initiatives which encourage all categories of our community to participate in tree planting activities at public parks.  

Rodriguez defeats world No.1 Ali Farag

Doha-Colombia's Miguel Rodriguez, ranked 17th, scripted one of the biggest wins of his career after he sensationally knocked out world No.1 and two-time winner, Ali Farag, 3-2 (13-11, 5-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-8) to set up a quarter-final clash against three-time winner Mohamed ElShorbagy on Tuesday.  The highly entertaining 72-minute encounter is arguably one of the best matches of the tournament so far as the two players brought out the best in each other with their high-octane level of play.  Meanwhile, Mohamed ensured that the two ElShorbagy brothers will be featuring in the last-eight of the QTerminals Qatar Classic 2022 after emerging victorious in his clash with Youssef Soliman.  Mohamed, the elder of the ElShorbagy brothers, won in straight sets (11-5, 11-8, 11-5) moments after his brother, Marwan, had secured his own quarter-final berth after a 3-2 (8-11, 11-7, 11-9, 12-14, 11-7) win over Shahjahan Khan of the USA.  "I think after I won the match yesterday, I told my coach, Greg, we shouldn’t take [Soliman] lightly. He just won a [bronze-level event] in Egypt. I know how talented he is and he’s playing with confidence. I needed to start very well and kill any confidence [he had]. I think we did a good job and I’m happy to be through to the quarters," Mohamed said after his win.  Marwan, the No.8 seed, came from behind to defeat the world No. 30 American in the first match of the day.  Khan, playing one of the best matches of his career, took a deserved lead in game one before his Egyptian opponent countered, finding his mark at the front with increasing frequency to move into the lead with an 11-7 and an 11-9 win.  

Stage set for Schools Olympic Program

DOHA-The Organizing Committee of the Schools Olympic Program (SOP) held a press conference at the QOC Headquarters on Sunday to brief media on the latest arrangements for the 16th edition of the event.  Sheikh Khalifa bin Khalid Al Thani, Chairman of Organizing Committee thanked the QOC President H.E Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani and the QOC Secretary General H.E Jassim bin Rashid Al Buenain for their support to the SOP. He also thanked Her Excellency Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani for attending the final day of girls’ event at the last edition.  Chairman of Organizing Committee stressed that the new edition of the SOP aims to prepare a new generation of Qatar athletes in preparation for 2030 Asian Games to be staged in Doha. Hamad Al Obaidly, Deputy Chairman of SOP Organizing Committee said that the new edition will feature 18 sports including Football, Volleyball, Basketball, Gymnastics, Swimming Athletics, Table Tennis, Fencing, Tennis, Shooting, Chess, Taekwondo, Padel, Hockey and Beach Volleyball.  The SOP, a prestigious national sports program, is held annually as a collaborative effort of QSSA and Ministry of Education and Higher Education, with hundreds of students competing from all over Qatar. The program goes in line with other initiatives in economic, social, human and environmental spheres undertaken by Qatar government as part of the Qatar National Vision 2030.