All photos via Qatar Olympic Committee on Facebook
Nearly two dozen Qataris – 19 male and two female – are currently representing their home country at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.
The athletes are competing in seven disciplines: athletics, shooting, gymnastics, equestrian, table tennis, handball and swimming.
According to the Qatar Olympic Committee, 15-year-old Rahma Al-Dulaimi, Qatar’s youngest attendee, said:
“It’s an incredible feeling to represent Qatar and I hope to push myself and do my best to make my country proud.”
The games commenced on Aug. 16 and will continue until Aug. 28.
Performance
The majority of disciplines that Qatar is representing began competing on Sunday. Athletics, however, begins today.
So far, 16-year-old swimmer Waleed Daloul has created a new Qatar record during his 100m breaststroke heat.
During the event, Daloul managed to clock 1:07.42, an improvement on the national record of 1:08.98 – a record that was previously set by Daloul himself.
However, Daloul was unable to get through the heat stages, with his competitors slipping away halfway through the race. He will still compete in the 50m breaststroke race.
Abdullah Al Sunaidi, 16, has also set a national record of scoring 609.6 points during the men’s 10m air rifle competition.
Here’s a list of the 21 athletes representing Qatar:
- Abdulrahman Al Naggar, 16 years old, table tennis – men’s singles and mixed international team;
- Abdullah Zain Al Sunaidi, 16 years old, shooting – men’s 10m air rifle;
- Hamad Al Qadi, 18 years old, equestrian – jumping individual, jumping international team (Asia);
- Walid Rafiq Daloul, 16 years old, swimming – men’s 50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke;
- Idriss Moussa Yousef, 17 years old, athletics – men’s 800m;
- Rahma Aldulaimi, 15 years old, women’s artistic gymnastics; and
- Nadeen Wehdan, 17 years old, trampoline gymnastics.
Additionally, the following athletes are playing in the men’s handball team:
- Abdulaziz Helali, 18 years old;
- Bilal Lepenica, 17 years old;
- Ebrahim Ebaid, 18 years old;
- Adson Bajric, 18 years old;
- Irhad Alihodzic, 17 years old;
- Amine Guehis, 18 years old;
- Salem Braham, 18 years old;
- Amor Dhiab, 17 years old;
- Bozo Subotic, 18 years old;
- Nour Ahmed, 18 years old;
- Omar Abdelfattah, 18 years old;
- Faruk Colo, 17 years old;
- Noomen Ahmadi, 18 years old; and
- Moustafa Heiba, 17 years old.
To date, Qatar has won four bronze medals in the regular Olympic games – the first in 1999 in athletics (1500m), the second in 2000 for weightlifting (105kg – heavyweight) and in 2012 for athletics (high jump) and shooting (skeet – 125 targets).
For those who wish to watch the games, live competitions can be streamed here. Updates are also being posted QOC’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
Thoughts?
Seems like quite a few imports on that list. Doesn’t sit well with me when countries do that especially when citizenship is normally unattainable.
😉
check this visual presentation of the World Cup and all the relations of the players http://codehesive.com/wc-ancestry/
That was a very interesting read, thanks for sharing.
Interesting read but I don’t think you can count the people that have citizenship of another country as being ‘foreign’. People like Messi are Argentinan and play for Argentina but have spent a long time in places like Spain or Italy so qualify for citizenship. The clubs encourage them to take it as they don’t have to apply for work permits and it makes life so much easier.
The real comparison is countries like France that take players who were born overseas and then naturalise them to play for France. That is gaming the system like Qatar.
Of course, there are different circumstances and motivations for every country which you have to consider if you look at this chart.
Those that have citizenship of another country but play for their country of birth should not be included.
As far as I know, these imports are not given permanent citizenship. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Well that makes it even more wrong.
I think it is great Qatar encourges all these sporting events to be taken up by the people in Qatar. OK some are not natural born Qataris but if they do inspire the locals to get out of their LCs and get active I think that is a great thing. With the wealth the country has the and the large amount of free time locals have, keeping active and enjoying sports is a great thing to do. Better than driving arriving, eating shwarma and taking three holidays a year in Thailand.
Why Thailand?
Apparently medical treatment…… And others tell their wives they are going to Mecca……
Ohh ok…medical massages Im guessing after some medicinal hops and malt drinks.
Bearing in mind the recent controversy over dress of Qataris overseas, will the youngsters be taking part dressed in Thobes and Abayas….nope didn’t think so.
Good luck to all those taking part 🙂