In a thoughtful and commendable initiative, and on the occasion of the Qatar Athletics Federation winning the Golden Federation title for the 2010-2011 sporting season, HE Abdullah Ahmed Al Zaini, president of the Qatar Athletics Federation, held a dinner at the Federation’s headquarters at 8pm on Wednesday, 29 June, to which he invited local members of the press and media. He welcomed them and praised the role of the print, audio and visual media in spreading a culture of athletics in Qatari society, 
and thanked them for their efforts in following and publicising the achievements made by the Qatar Athletics Federation over the past two seasons, both domestically and internationally. HE presented commemorative shields to the members of the press and media who attended the dinner, representing their institutions, namely Mr Salah Al Haj and Mr Magdy Zahran of Al Sharq newspaper, Mr Salah Abdul Ghani of Al Raya newspaper, Mr Mohammed Al Jazouli of Al Arab newspaper, and Mr Moussa Abdullah of Al Watan newspaper, and the discussion covered many topical issues in the sporting community. The dinner and honouring ceremony was attended by secretary general Mr Adel Mohammed Al Baker, assistant secretary Mr Issa Abdullah Al Harmi, Mr Mohammed Ahmed Sulaiman, Mr Yaqoub Yousef Abdullah and Ms Mariam Abdullah Al Ishaq, board members, Mr Khalifa Yousef Abdulmalik, the Federation’s executive director, the Federation’s technical expert, and Federation staff. It is worth noting that the Qatar Athletics Federation has made numerous achievements, both in terms of management and organisation and in terms of the sporting achievements made by players of the Qatari national athletics team.
Qatar’s athletics teams in various categories won numerous medals and stood on podiums at various championships. It is worth noting that Qatari athletics has begun taking great strides internationally, both in terms of the sporting achievements made by Qatari athletes at international championships and in terms of the management and organisation of world championships,
and these achievements were embodied at their peak at last summer’s world championships, where Qatar’s athletics competitors won four world medals, namely:-
Gold for Mutaz Essa Barshim in the high jump at the World Youth Championships
Gold for Rashid Al Manai in the high jump at the World Continental Cup
Silver for Hamza Derouiche in the 1000m at the Youth Olympic Games.
Bronze for Mohammed Al Karni in the 800m at the World Youth Championships.
Qatari athletes also claimed 11 medals of various colours at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
In terms of new Qatari records this season, Qatari male athletes set 41 new Qatari records in domestic and international championships, while Qatari female athletes set 34 new Qatari records in domestic and international championships, meaning that the total number of records set this season reached 75. It is worth noting that most of these broken records were concentrated in the youth, cadet and junior age groups.. which reflects the Federation’s sound approach of focusing on the age-group categories and providing the best material and human conditions to develop these groups so that they can supply the national teams in the future with distinguished players capable of competing internationally with high competence and ability in the near future.
In terms of achievements in managing and organising international championships, the Federation’s success was clear, through the outstanding efforts made by the Qatari administrative and technical staff at the World Indoor Championships held last year and at the 2010 and 2011 Diamond League championships, and crowning what the Federation has achieved in terms of remarkable organisational accomplishments at previous and current international championships.. the Qatar Athletics Federation submitted a bid to the IAAF to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships in Doha, with the file to be discussed in November of this year in Monaco, noting that there are significant challenges as we compete for hosting rights against (Britain, Spain).
In terms of honouring Qatari athletes, high jump champion Mutaz Essa Barshim won the Athlete of the Season award for his many achievements at world, Asian and regional level, most notably winning the gold medal and first place in the high jump final at the World Youth Athletics Championships held from 19 to 25 July 2010 in the city of Moncton, Canada, with the participation of 700 athletes representing 150 countries, recording a golden jump and a remarkable mark of 2.30m, and the Sportswoman of the Season award went to runner Noor Hassan Al Malki, who won two gold medals and a silver at the Gulf Women’s Sports Tournament: in the 100m she won gold with a new Qatari record of 12.72 seconds, and gold in the 200m with a new Qatari record of 26.60 seconds, and she also won a silver medal with the relay team alongside her Qatari national team colleagues. Runner Hamza Derouiche, meanwhile, won the Promising Athlete of the Season award after winning the silver medal in the 1000m at the Youth Olympic Games.
Swedish coach Stanislav Zyrba, the high jump coach, was also chosen as Best Professional Coach for his achievements with his athletes Mutaz Barshim and Rashid Al Manai.
