Al Rayyan hosts festival and beats Qatari clubs in the Hope category (8-9) years

On its own ground and before its fans and supporters, Al Rayyan Sports Club managed to beat the Qatari clubs at the second athletics festival for the Hope category, ages (8-9), held at four o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesday 7/3/2012 at the Al Rayyan Club ground, which had requested to host the tournament, in line with the Qatar Athletics Federation’s policy of involving clubs in organising events and taking on responsibility for encouraging children to take up athletics at clubs, so as to build a broad base of athletics fans, supporters and young participants at the clubs. Nine Qatari clubs competed, hoping to win this festival given its importance for the general excellence shield points, with the club finishing first receiving (32) points towards the general excellence shield and the club finishing second (28) points, and so on, with (4) points deducted for each place down to the last-placed club, which receives (4) points. Note that Al Jaish Sports Club was not included in the general excellence shield points because its categories are not yet complete, as it currently takes part with only (3) categories — Hope, Baraem and Ashbal — and will add one category each season, so that its six categories will be complete by 2015, at which point it will compete for the clubs’ general excellence shield points. The following clubs took part in the festival: Al Sadd, Al Jaish, Al Wakrah, Al Arabi, Al Ahli, Al Gharafa, Al Rayyan, Al Khor and Qatar SC. The events, in the form of games, were (8) games designed for children: Formula 1, 30 m, relay, 30 m foam hurdles, forward ball throw, rocket javelin throw, sideways jump and long jump. After fierce competition between the clubs in the festival’s games, Al Rayyan’s Hope category players managed to settle the festival in their favour with a total of (74) points, the sum of points across the eight events, with the best-performing club in each event awarded (10) points, the next club (8) points, the third-placed club in performance ranking awarded (7) points, and so on down to the least fortunate club in ninth place, which is awarded (1) point. During the festival, competition was fierce for second place between Al Sadd Sports Club and Al Jaish Sports Club, and in the final event Al Jaish Sports Club prevailed thanks to strong performances by its players, securing second place with a total of (55) points, one point ahead of Al Sadd, whose players collected (54) points.
At the end of the festival, all the players of the nine participating clubs were honoured with certificates of appreciation from the International Association of Athletics Federations, after which Mr Yaqoub Yousef Abdullah – board member and technical observer of the festival – awarded medals to the players of the clubs finishing in the top three places, then distributed trophies to the clubs finishing in the top three places, namely Al Rayyan, Al Jaish and Al Sadd Sports Club, amid great joy as the children celebrated their participation and their win at the festival. Below is the club ranking at the athletics festival for children in the Hope category (8-9) years