The Challenge, a part of Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar’s (WCMC-Q) health campaign, Sahtak Awalan – Your Health First, saw hundreds of middle school children from 20 schools across Qatar compete in a series of physical tasks in the main arena of the Aspire Zone.
Now in its second year, The Challenge promotes the importance of exercise and fitness and aims to encourage young people to take up sport or a physical activity.
The five-year initiative — that was launched in 2012 — is organised by WCMC-Q in conjunction with the Supreme Council of Health and in partnership with Qatar Foundation, the Supreme Education Council, Qatar Petroleum, Occidental Petroleum of Qatar, ExxonMobil Qatar Inc, Qatar Olympic Committee and Vodafone Qatar.
In addition to the interschool contest, The Challenge also offered the audience the chance to have their health and fitness professionally assessed through the use of a body analyzing machine and the AGE (advanced glycation end products) reader.
The day culminated with the award of The Challenge Trophy by Dr Saleh Al Marri, Assistant Secretary for Medical Affairs at the SCH, to the winning teams in both the boys’ and girls’ categories. In the boys’ competition, first place was clinched by German School, while the girls’ contest was won by the team from International School of Choueifat. All of the members of the two winning teams were presented with iPads as prizes.
The event also saw the announcement of the winners of the educational Poster Competition. Students were challenged to research the most serious health issues facing Qatar and make posters to present the information. The posters were displayed in public at The Challenge and the creators of the ten best posters were awarded iPads as prizes.
Luca Dohlus, aged 15, was a member of the winning boys’ team from German School. He said: “We were really surprised and happy that we won. It was hard work and the other teams were very good but I think we managed to win because everyone on my team worked together very well and gave their best performance. It was great fun to take part and so good to win.”
Lina Al Haj, aged 12, was on the winning girls’ team from International School of Choueifat, which also fielded the winning girls’ team last year.
Lina said: “I enjoyed it a lot. Although we lost a few of the games we eventually won and the races were so much fun; I liked that they were games rather than sport. It was all really good fun and very challenging as all the other schools were really good.”
Winners of Boys Competition: 1st: German School, 2nd: English Modern School and 3rd: Canadian School
Girls Competition: 1st: International School of Choueifat, 2nd: Hammad School International and 3rd: German School
The winners of the poster competition came from Al Ahnaf bin Qais Independent School for Boys, Amna bint Wahab Independent School for Girls, Hamza Bin Abdul Muttalib School, Al Hammad International School, English Modern School Al Khor, Canadian School and German School.
The Peninsula
