Curtains to come down on Asian Shooting Championship on Wednesday

DOHA, November 13 , 2019 – Under the patronage of HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani, the President of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) , the competitions of the prestigious 14th Asian Shooting Championships will be concluded at losail shooting Arena on Wednesday.On the eight day of the championship, the Chinese team dominated the three top places in Youth's 10m pistol event and winning the gold medal in the Youth's 10m rifle event.In the Youth's 10m air rifle event, India clinched the gold medal meanwhile the runner-up place went to China.On Wednesday, the closing scene will see four finals in the Trap event for Men, Women and Youth.The championship is bringing together 1000 shooters from 32 countries including 136 shooters from the host nation Qatar.​

SOP Football, basketball and volleyball competitions to begin on Tuesday

DOHA, November 12, 2019 – The competitions of football, basketball, volleyball and handball in the 13th edition of the Schools Olympic Program (SOP) will get underway at different sport venues in Doha on Tuesday.Aspire playground number (1) will see students from different learning stages competing in football event on Tuesday, while basketball event for preparatory schools will kick off at the Qatar Basketball Federation Hall.On other hand, secondary schools students will begin their campaign in the volleyball event at Al Arabi SC hall, meanwhile, other secondary schools students will start their handball competitions at Al Sailiyah secondary school hall.In the last week's volleyball event for secondary schools, Abdullah bin Ali Al Misnad school defeated Qatar technical school 2-0 and Hassan bin Thabit school beat Khalifa secondary school 2-1.In a press release on Monday, HE Sheikh Khalifa bin Khalid Al Thani, the Chairman of the SOP Organizing Committee said that the committee is looking for greater levels of success for the prestigious program by encouraging the younger student to participate in multiple sports and build healthy lifestyle full of activity and energy.The SOP is held annually as a collaborative effort of to encourage hundreds of students athletes competing from all over Qatar.The SOP Committee aims to spread a culture of sports through Qatar's schools and to engage the entire community in active and healthy lifestyles while retaining local values and traditions.​

Tamimi shines in defeat, Elias beats Dessouky to enter quarters

Doha, November 12, 2019-Despite losing to second-seed Tarek Momen, world No.47 Abdulla Mohammed Al Tamimi can definitely raise his head with pride as he gave a performance worthy of great applause in the last pre-quarters match of Day 4 of the ongoing PSA Men's World Championship in Doha on Monday.The exhilarating match, watched by a capacity crowd, saw the World No. 3 Momen staged a 3-2 ( 11-5, 10-12, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4) comeback victory against the Qatari player who had to battle through injury for considerable part of the 76mins match.Reaching this stage of the tournament has been a dream come through for the 24-year-old Aspire Academy graduate who became the first Qatari player to reach the pre-quarters of the World Championship after scripting a straight-game defeat of the 28th-ranked Mathieu Castagnet of France on Saturday.Momen, who also accounted for Tamimi's defeat at the US Open Championship in October, will next face World No.7 Diego Elias who got the better of Egypt's Fares Dessouky 3-1 (10-12, 11-8, 11-6, 11-4) in the other match of the day to become the first Peruvian in history to reach the quarter-finals of the PSA Men's World Championship.“The match was very tough and I must commend Tamimi for putting up such a fight. He is a dogged and promising player. I admire his fighting spirit and I wish him nothing but the best. I am happy with today's victory and I look forward to the next match against Elias which promises to be exciting as well. I will continue to give my best as I hope to win this championship," said the 31-year-old Momen.“The match was tough and we both gave good accounts of ourselves. The match could have gone both ways but in the end the better player won. Congratulations to Momen for winning and I wish him the best at this tournament," Tamimi said during the post-match press conference.On the other hand, Germany's Simon Rösner on Monday claimed a straight game victory over Wale's Joel Makin to emerge the first man to book a place in the quarter-finals thereby setting up a clash against England's James Willstrop, who accounted for the exit of tournament's third-seed Karim Abdel Gawad in another match of the day.While the world No. 6 German posted an emphatic 3-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-5) win within 47 minutes, the 18th-ranked Willstrop, however, was made to sweat it out against an opponent who had been in fine form of recent. The Englishman eventually triumphed 3-1 (11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 12-10) after 71 minutes of play to make his 11th quarter-final berth in 16 appearances at the World Championship stage.For Rösner, Monday's match inside the glass court of the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in Doha against the in-form 12th-ranked Makin was arguably one of his best performances of the season.The pair have had contrasting fortunes in the opening months of the 2019-20 PSA World Tour season, with Rösner dropping out of the top five after two quarter-final appearances in four tournaments, while Makin is coming off the back of a first ever PSA Platinum semi-final at the CIB Egyptian Squash Open last week.But the formbook went out of the window in Qatar as Rösner played some sublime squash en route to claiming an 11-8, 11-8, 11-5 victory to book his spot in the last eight of the prestigious tournament for the second time in his career.“Having not had the best few weeks lately, it's very good to get a win against someone who is in form like Joel at the moment, beating Tarek last week. It's a big confidence boost for me and I need to take this kind of form into the next rounds and I'm looking forward to it," Rösner said.​

Qatar junior women team claim skeet bronze in Asian shooting Championship

DOHA, November 12, 2019-North Korea's Kim Song Guk broke the world record en route to clinching a gold medal and an Olympic quota at the 14th Asian Shooting Championship, while Qatar's junior women's team won bronze in skeet. At the Losail Shooting Complex, Guk was in sensational form as the 34-year-old shattered the previous record set by India's teenage sensation Saurabh Chaudhary, who had to settle for silver yesterday. Guk, an Olympic bronze medallist at Rio 2016 in the 50m pistol, scored 246.5 points which was an improvement on Chaudhary's world record set in the Munich World Cup earlier this season, by 0.2 points.Qatar's junior women's team of Fatima Saeed al-Muraikhi, Ghalia Ali al-Malki and Amna Ali al-Shirawi brought cheer to home fans with a bronze medal. They combined for a total tally of 250 points, to finish behind winners China (339) and runner-up India (309).The 17-year-old Chaudhary claimed silver scoring 244.5, while bronze went to Javad Foroughi of Iran on 221.8. Other than Guk, two other Olympic quotas went to Foroughi and Pakistan's Gulfam Joseph, who finished seventh in the final. India and South Korea had two finalists, while China had one but all three countries had already reached their maximum allocation of two quota each. The 19-year-old Joseph became the third Pakistani shooter to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Games after Mohamed Khalil Akhtar and Ghulam Mustafa Bashir. Together with Abhishek Verma and Sharvan Kumar, Chaudhary also won the team bronze for India.In the junior mixed air rifle event, Shreya Agrawal and Dhanush Srikanth won the gold beating China's Zeru Wang and Xuanle Jiang 16-14 in a thrilling final. China was also denied a bronze as its' second pair Jinjing Yan and Junzong Hu lost 17-11 to Iran's Armina Sadeghian and Amirsiyavash Zolfagharian. India's second pair Khushi Saini and Hriday Hazarika, who had topped the first qualifications, finished fifth eventually.In junior men's skeet, Kazakhstan's Eduard Yechshenko won gold ahead of India's Gurnihal Singh Garcha. Wu Liangliang of Chian took silver. Abhay Sekhon, who had topped qualification with a solid 120, was the second Indian in the final but finished fourth, narrowly missing out on a medal.Action in Doha will continue tomorrow with the last day of competition. Gold medals will be decided in the men's 50m pistol, the skeet mixed team and the men's and women's running target.​

Team Qatar prepare for Arab Golf Championship

DOHA, November 11. 2019 – Qatar's golf team intensified their training sessions on Sunday ahead of their upcoming participation in the Arab Golf Championship which will take place in Morocco next month.Elite golfers will represent Qatar in the prestigious event, including Khalid Al Kaabi, Ali Al Shahrani, Jaham Al Kawari, Fahad Ramadan, while the team delegation is chaired by Fahad bin Nasser Al Nuaimi, Secretary General of Qatar Golf Association (QGA). Qatar Golf Association is ambitiously looking for new achievements and good results in this Arab campaign.​

Team Qatar qualify to AFC U-19 Championship

Doha, November 11, 2019-Qatar held off a fast-finishing Yemen to qualify for AFC U-19 Championship Uzbekistan 2020 as Group B winners after a thrilling 1-1 draw on Monday.The group hosts have goalkeeper Yousef Abdullah to thank for their success, after his brilliant penalty save denied Yemen's Mohammed Abdulwahab Al Thulaia a would-be winner late in the second half.Yemen's haul of seven points means they are highly likely to qualify as one of the four best second-place finishers, while Turkmenistan, who beat Sri Lanka 4-2 in the early match, finished third.Qatar held on to secure the draw they needed to win the group on goal difference, but only after withstanding a fighting second-half display from Yemen in Doha.With Qatar's heavy earlier wins over Sri Lanka and Turkmenistan meaning simply avoiding defeat would secure their place in the Finals, the group hosts relied on a strong save from Abdullah to prevent Jassem Abdulsallam from turning the ball into his own net in the 10th minute.Having survived that scare, Qatar took the lead three minutes before half-time, with a firmly struck free kick from captain Naif Abdulraheem Al Hadhrami finding the net from 25 yaerds after taking a touch from Yemen's Muneef Jassar.Fabio Cesar's side looked relatively safe at the interval, but Yemen came storming back into contention with a terrific second half performance, as Qatar struggled to keep them bay after a wave of dangerous attacking moves.Their excellent football was rewarded in the 53rd minute, when Ahmed Maher got in behind the defence thanks to a sublime pass from Saad Al Qaaod before beating Abdullah with a precise finish to make it 1-1.While a draw could potentially see both teams through to the Finals, Qatar knew their AFC U-19 Championship would be likely to come to an abrupt end with a defeat, and their future in the tournament must have flashed before their eyes when Yemen were awarded a penalty after Talal Ibrahim Faraj handled the ball in the penalty area.But Abdullah saved his teammates blushes, saving not only from Al Thulaia's spot kick, but also blocking the Yemeni striker's effort on the rebound, with the whistle blowing for a foul to render Al Qaaod's subsequent bundling of the ball into the net inconsequential.Abdullah's heroics meant Qatar survived the most dangerous moment of the match, ultimately securing their place in the finals, and leaving Yemen to wait on the final results from elsewhere before joining them in celebration.​