Thousands flock to Aspire Park

Thousands of sports enthusiasts and families from across Qatar yesterday turned out at the Aspire Park to take part in the country’s largest National Sport Day celebrations.
The event marked the culmination of months of planning with a programme carefully designed to take full advantage of Aspire’s world-class venues and facilities and provide visitors with a unique and unforgettable experience.
A number of prominent officials and dignitaries attended the sporting events to show their support for the development of sports and healthy lifestyle in the country. These included the Minister of Culture and Sports, H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali, popular former Qatari athlete Captain Talal Mansour, and several of Qatar’s most promising young Olympians.
The Minister said: “Members of the community in Qatar are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of sports and the advantage of regular exercise as highlighted by a number of recent studies that we have conducted with Qatar University. Through such initiatives as National Sport Day, it is clear that Qatar is making good progress in promoting physical activity amongst all members of the community.”
He added: “Aspire Zone Foundation has played an important role in supporting this success, by increasing community participation and involvement in sport through its various activities. The organisation is making good progress in promoting active lifestyles and working closely with its partners to support the development of sport in the country.”
Mohammad Khalifa Al Suwaidi, CEO of Aspire Zone Foundation, said: “The celebrations this year lived up to expectations thanks to the collective experience and expertise of Aspire Zone Foundation and its member organisations – Aspire Academy, Aspetar and Aspire Logistics. Together they offered rich and varied programmes of activities for people of all ages. There were many highlights this year, including Aspire Academy’s Football Performance and Science activities, Aspetar’s Nordic Walk and 5,000 Step Journey, as well as several community programmes by Aspire Logistics.”
“Aspire Zone staff did a great job accommodating visitors’ needs on the day and made the most of the cooler weather in the morning. Our wide range of events reflect Aspire Zone Foundation’s mission to promote sporting activity and provide a range of activities for all members of the community, in line with Qatar’s National Vision 2030,” he further noted
The morning activities kicked off with the annual "Fun Run" event, where large numbers of people of all ages, including some of Qatar’s national Olympic athletes such as Abderrahman Samba, Mabrook Saleh, and Idris Mousa, took part. Visitors to Aspire were as diverse as they have ever been, with all sections of the community represented. Qatari nationals participated in a range of activities alongside the country’s expat residents.
Around Aspire Park, health and wellness experts offered advice and recommendations on leading a healthy lifestyle at education stations staffed by experts from the Namat physical activity and health education programme.
Elsewhere in Aspire Dome, activities included Beat the Champion, Multi-sport skill development and Football Performance & Science. People of all ages and backgrounds took part in the events together, clearly enjoying the occasion. Large numbers of professionally trained coaches from Aspire Academy were on hand to offer encouragement to all those taking part and cheer them on.
The reaction across Aspire Zone was enormously positive. Many of the people attending the day’s celebrations highlighted their determination to keep fit and active throughout the year, and to take advantage of the world-class facilities and infrastructure available at Aspire Zone.
Ivan Bravo, Director General of Aspire Academy, told The Peninsula: “Everyone in the country now looks forward to National Sport Day. People want to come out, want to participate and want to be active and engaged. It has become a key date in the calendar and people want to be involved every year. Even outside of Qatar, people are talking about the fact that Qatar has a National Sport Day.”
Zaki Shoheib, General Manager of Gree Company which works under the umbrella of Al Ta’adhod Construction and Trading, said at Aspire Zone: “We appreciate Aspire Zone for making us part of this celebration. It is our fifth year with Aspire Zone. This year as always we have come with our 600 workers to enjoy 18 different activities which include yoga, kick boxing, tug-of-war and etc. In case of emergency we have Royal Medical Center ready to help us.”
Keshav Khatri and Jaime Osorio, won six-month membership as first prize in rowing and skiing competition held at volley ball area in Aspire Zone. Ragh Eed and Mahar, won three-month membership as second prize in the same competition. Whereas El Hassan and Peter Longdill took away third prize of one-month membership at Aspire Zone. “It is a wonderful experience to participate in National Sport Day. Our first participation as a new clinic in Doha has been remarkable at Aspire Zone. Since 7am the crowd did not stop, more than 100 people visited our booth for their vital check-up which includes blood glucose test and blood pressure. We have five nurses at the booth. We are new in Doha and will attend as many social events as possible,” said Dr Islam Mohamed Zakaria, General Manager at Al- Malakia Clinic.
Abdulaziz Al Raeesi, a Qatari at Aspire Zone, said: “The activities here at the Aspire Dome today are excellent, and everything is very-well organised. The most interesting thing for me has been the bike simulation and the chance to use advanced technology to measure my strength. My children also really enjoyed the ‘Beat the Champion’ activity and the running speed test in particular.”
Describing her experience with Nordic Walk, Bama Manjonath said: “This is the first time that I have tried Nordic Walking and I’m very happy that I tried it because I really enjoyed it. I decided to take part after reading about this activity in the local newspaper and being really encouraged by the many benefits that it offers. Aspetar’s coaches have helped introduce the sport in an easy and simple way.”