03 Sep 2024
Two Aspire student-athletes, two graduates, and an Academy-trained sprinter all proudly represented the Qatar team at the World Under-20 Athletics Championships in Peru.
The quintet will all have gained valuable experience competing and testing themselves against the world's very best athletes.
Staff working with the athletes, including coaches, sports science, and medical staff, will also have gathered a lot of important information in Peru, which will prove valuable in developing all the student-athletes at the Academy.
Grade 12 student-athlete Seif Hemeida, who is trained by Qatar Athletics Federation’s (QAF) Pawel Szczyrba, reached the final of the pole vault despite struggling with injuries in recent weeks.
The problems prevented him from training with a full-length run-up as he prepared for the competition. Ultimately, he finished sixth in the final, and the conditions prevented many jumpers from reaching their usual heights.
Oumar Doudai Abakar, who is trained by Aspire’s sprints team led by Lee Christopher, reached the final of the 110m hurdles and ultimately narrowly missed out on a medal as he finished fourth in a very fast final.
He had raced consistently in the earlier rounds, but ultimately, his final position reflected his global under-20 ranking of fourth going into the competition.
In the 800m, recent graduate Ibrahim Abdalla Haydar, coached by Aspire Academy's Charlie Grice and Ahmed Abdulla, finished fifth in his heat and was eventually 31st overall, which was 11 places above his ranking before the championships.
Another 2024 graduate, Khalid Wadi Adoum, who is trained by QAF's Hennie Kotze, also failed to progress beyond his heats of the 400m, but he bounced back to run an impressive 46.95s relay split in the 4x400m, which saw Qatar finish 13th overall.
Student-athlete Mahamat Abakar Abdrahman, who is also coached by QAF’s Hennie Kotze, finished 44th in the 400m hurdles, just four places less than his 40th place initial ranking. He was also part of Qatar's 4x400m relay team.
The next World Under-20 Championships will be held in Eugene, USA, in 2026, and already, a strong pipeline of athletes is being developed to compete for medals and once again proudly represent Qatar.
This season, four other Aspire Academy student-athletes achieved the qualifying standard for the World Under-20 Championships – Mohamed Noufal in the triple jump, hammer thrower Abderahman Ibrahim as well as 110m hurdlers Kendry Fuentes and Adolfo Alvarez.