Aspire Academy and Qatar Anti-Doping Commission ink partnership deal

​DOHA, March 01, 2020 - Aspire Academy and Qatar Anti-Doping Commission (QADC) jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to organize workshops for Academy staff.Dr. Nasser Ali Al-Anasri, the QADC President signed on behalf of the Qatar Anti-Doping Commission , while Ali Salem Afifa, Director General of Aspire Academy signed on behave of the Academy.The workshops will provide theoretical and practical activities for national teams members and the Academy staff along with administrative and technical bodies and medical staff.Awareness on risk of doping and preventing athletes to use banned doping are the main topics shall be raised out during the workshops.

QOC organizes Sport Day For Diplomatic Missions

DOHA, March 01, 2020 – The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) represented by its Sport Affairs Department organized a series of sport events and entertainment activities for diplomatic missions members and their families at the Qatar Bowling Centre on Saturday.The prestigious event has seen the attendance of HE Jassim Rashid Al Buenain, the QOC Secretary General. It also brought together more than 120 participants representing 23 Arab and foreign embassies accredited in the country.From early morning at 9 AM to 12 at noon the participants from different age groups involved in a number of entertainment activities and sport events including bowling, table tennis, snooker, billiard, table soccer and electronic Games.In a brief comments, the QOC's Secretary General appreciated the diplomatic mission participation in this prestigious event and underlined the significant role of this day to enhancing the relations between the QOC and embassies and diplomatic missions.

Sheikh Joaan crowns winners of Commercial Bank CHI Al Shaqab

DOHA, March 01, 2020- His Excellency, Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani, the President of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) has crowned on Saturday Daniel Deusser of German after winning the Grand Prix of the three-day Commercial Bank CHI Al Shaqab Presented by Longines took place in Doha.Deusser had a quiet weekend coming into the final day of the Commercial Bank CHI Al Shaqab Presented by Longines, but the German World No 3 rose to the occasion when it mattered. On the final night of the prestigious championship, Deusser saved his best for last as he clinched the Grand Prix 1.60m class at the Longines Arena at Al Shaqab yesterday.Deusser astride 10-year-old bay Killer Queen Vdm was the fastest combination in the jump-off with 38.90-second scorching run under the floodlights. Austrian Max Kuhner and the nine-year-old Electric Blue P came second in 39.39 secs, with Frenchman Roger Yves Bost taking third spot with 14-year-old Sangria du Coty in 39.68 secs.“It feels great to have won this event. Killer Queen has long strides and she runs tight lines," Deusser said after getting richer by €135,300. “I had never won this Grand Prix. It was pretty tough today, but my horse did great. I'm really happy. This ring with long lines is very nice for her. She won with her big canter today," the 38-year-old added.Eighteen combinations advanced to the second round of the quality 41-rider field, which was followed by a jump-off for the double clear combinations. Kuhner set the pace with his lightning bay Electric Blue P, while Bost had to balance Sangria du Coty just too often and was about 0.29 seconds slower than the Austrian. Deusser remained neck-and-neck with Kuhner until halfway through the jump-off course, but flew past him on the final line with Killer Queen Vdm and finished half a second faster. Julien Epaillard – who had won thrice in the past two days – looked good to beat Deusser's time but the Frenchman got a bar on the second-to-last obstacle with Alibi de la Roque and had to settle for seventh spot.“It's difficult to say what was the hardest in the final run. A lot of riders had gone fast. I had to do as fast as possible. My horse has a huge stride and having long lines helped. In smaller arenas, it was the biggest difficulty for me, but here, it was not as much a problem," Deusser said.Omar al-Mannai, the Event Director of the Commercial Bank CHI Al Shaqab Presented by Longines, was pleased with the turnout for the championship and was looking forward to next weekend's Longines Global Champions Tour opener. “We spent three great days of high performance sport. We had fun around the venue at the festival area. The atmosphere was incredible. It was nice for everyone who came here. I hope everyone enjoyed their time. Lots of things to do for next weekend as well," al-Mannai said.Earlier, Patrik Kittel made it two victories in a row with 14-year-old gelding Delaunay Old to win the Dressage CDI5* Grand Prix Freestyle, with the pair having also won on Friday.Kittel and Delaunay Old scored 79.290 percent to top the field as the Swedish rider took home €27,173 in prize money. “I came here with the goal of being among the top three and we really succeeded. I'm really happy. You can't be more than happy when you win. I had a much better feeling today. Delaunay came more into the program and relaxed in a different way," said Kittel.Morgan Barbançon and Sir Donnerhall II Old, France's leading combination, scored 76.450 percent to place second, as the duo did in the Grand Prix on Friday. Spain's Juan Matute Guimon and Quantico were third on 76.400 percent.Meanwhile, Ireland's Kate Dwyer on Snowdon Faberge took the Grand Prix Special on a personal best score of 70.043 percent. Dwyer was in tears as the judges read out the score as she became the first Irish rider to win at Grand Prix Special at five-star level. Last to go in the six-horse class and riding her 14-year-old gelding Snowdon Faberge, Dwyer beat Belarus' Hann Karasiova into second place.“I am a little bit in shock but so happy. I just felt today I really had him with me in that ride, he was taking me every step of the way. When I came up that last centre line I was like 'oh my goodness, this is what it feels like'. I am delighted with his performance and I know this is only the tip of the iceberg of what he can give me," a delighted Dwyer said.Following a 10th place finish in Friday's Grand Prix, Dwyer said her aim was to break the 70 percent mark and was overjoyed to have done that. “I finally hit the 70 percent. There were tears in my eyes. It is so lovely to hear it, and it's not that often you hear it, so I am delighted and really proud. When I looked back and saw my mark I just couldn't stop the tears, I just couldn't believe it," Dwyer said.

HH the Amir Attends Parts of Qatar Total Open Final

​Doha, March 1, 2020-(QNA) - HH the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani attended Saturday parts of the final of the 18th Qatar Total Open for women's tennis, which took place at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.The match ended with Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka defeating Czech Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-3.The final was attended by HE former President of the Argentine Republic Mauricio Macri and his wife, a number of their excellencies sheikhs and ministers, and the fans. (QNA)

Curtains come down on Qatar Open Shotgun Championships

Doha, February 29, 2020- The 2020 edition of Qatar Open Shotgun Championships was concluded at Lusail International Shooting Complex on Friday.The event brought together 220 shooters from 35 nations.Alessandro De Souza Ferreira and Fatima Galvez Marin of Spain claimed the gold medal of trap mixed doubles event.Great Britain's Matthew Coward-Holley and Kirsty Hegarty took the second place ahead of Italy's Erica Sessa and Emanuele Buccolieri in the third.

Sabalenka books final date with 2018 champion Kvitova

Doha, February 29, 2020-Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka, the No.9 seed, comfortably dispatched Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 in one hour 17 minutes to set up a first-time clash against 2018 champion Petra Kvitova in today's final.Kvitova defeated tournament's top seed Ashleigh Barty 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in the other semi-final encounter.With the golden falcon trophy and the $605,000 winner's prize money at stake, a stage is set for a thrilling encounter between two players who have been in fine form throughout this tournament.With her victory over the Russian, Sabalenka, who will be making her 10th WTA final appearance and her first in Doha, now holds a head-to-head advantage over the 32-year-old Kuznetsova as the duo came into the match with the record tied at 2-2.A crazy start to the match saw both Sabalenka and Kuznetsova exchange four breaks of serve as neither was able to gain any kind of momentum.But they began to settle down as the set neared its conclusion before the Belarusian stunned the crowd by breaking to love to draw first blood.Sabalenka continued to pile on the pressure at the start of the second set and raced into a 3-0 lead.And she never looked in any danger of relinquishing that advantage as she served out the match.For Kvitova, a chance of joining the “elite class" of two-time winners of the tournament beckons today as she faces the in-form Sabalenka.Since the tournament began in 2001, only three players - Anastasia Myskina (2003, 2004), Maria Sharapova (2005, 2008) and Victoria Azarenka (2012, 2013) – have had the privilege of lifting the trophy on more than one occasion.With the victory, which came after overcoming a second-set blip, Kvitova has now ended a run of four straight defeats to Barty, including in the Australian Open quarter-finals earlier this year, and she will also be featuring in the 37th WTA final of her career as she faces Sabalenka today.On the other hand, The pair of tournament's top seeds Barbora Strycova of Czech Republic and Chinese Taipei's Su-Wei Hseih combined effectively to emerge champions at the end of the final of the doubles event yesterday.The duo defeated the 2018 champions Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko and Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski 6-2, 5-7, 10-2 in 1 hour 30minutes to claim their third title of the season and the $172,000 winners' prize money as well as the trophyThe trophies and prizes were presented by QTF Secretary-General Tariq Zainal Tournament Director Saad Al Mohannadi, Total Qatar Vice President - HR, Communications and CSR Abdullah Mohsen and Managing Director Refining & Chemical Total Qatar Philippe Legrand.It was Hsieh's second victory in three finals in Doha as she won the 2014 title together with China's Peng Shuai. Her attempt at repeating the feat the following year, this time with India's Sania Mirza, ended in a straight-sets defeat to the USA pair of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.With the victory, the 34-year-old Hsieh is set to upstage Kristina Mladenovic at the top of the doubles rankings when the new release is out on Monday.