22 May 2023
Aspire Academy student-athlete Seif Hemeida (Seifeddine Mohamed Abdessalem) won pole vault gold for Qatar at the first-ever Arab Under-23 Athletics Championships in Tunisia.
The 18-year-old, who is coached by Qatar Athletics Federation’s Pawel Szczyrba, produced a dominant display on Sunday 21 May to take the title as he continued his outstanding season.
He failed his first attempt at his opening height of 4.60 metres but then enjoyed first-time clearances at 4.80m, 4.90m, 5.00m and 5.05 to claim the gold.
Hemeida then chose to continue and cleared 5.30m first time before raising the bar to 5.40m as he had two attempts to set a new Qatar national record.
A heavy downpour of rain meant he decided against a third attempt for safety reasons as he prepares for his next challenge at the 20th edition of the Asian Under-20 Athletics Championships in South Korea, which begin on 4 June.
“Congratulations to Seif on another medal and thanks to the Qatar Athletics Federation for their partnership with Aspire in this success,” Aspire Academy’s Head Athletics Coach Tom Crick said.
“It is a testament to the hard work of coach Pawel Szczyrba over the past several months and the support of Qatar Sports Club.
"Seif's final height of 5.30m is the 4th highest jump in the world this year by an under-20 athlete and the fact that he then attempted a national record of 5.40m is a promising sign ahead of the Asian Under-20 Championships, which will take place in Korea in a little under 2 weeks.”
The victory was the latest chapter in a successful year so far for Hemeida, who represents Qatar Sports Club in local events, after he set a new national record of 5.35m as he won silver at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in February. He went on to win gold at the West Asian Athletics Championships in Doha in April.