Ashraf Al Saifi defends his hammer record
Our national junior athletics team faces a new challenge in a journey that has already delivered numerous achievements at Olympic, world, continental and regional level, as Qatar’s promising athletes enter the challenge of the World Junior Championships in Eugene, USA today, on the track and field of the University of Oregon, with around 2,000 athletes from 180 countries around the world taking part.
Although the first day will only see the Qatari team present through its record of achievements in athletics championships – having finished runner-up in the men’s event at the last championships in Spain – the team will be present through the rest of the championships, in a number of different events featuring a group of promising stars from Qatari athletics.
Qatar’s delegation had left for Eugene, USA, led by assistant secretary general Mohammed Sulaiman, along with a group of promising athletes whom the athletics federation, led by its president Dahlan Al Hamad, aims to give the chance of exposure and various challenges in order to achieve results in the near and distant future. Leading the promising athletes is world star Ashraf Al Saifi, who is progressing steadily and holds the world junior record in the hammer throw, set at last year’s World Championships in Barcelona with a historic throw that will take years to be surpassed.
The unbeaten record
Promising Qatari champion Ashraf Al Saifi represents a bright future in the hammer throw through the outstanding results he achieved in the youth category and, later, at junior level. The promising star produced remarkable results that caught the attention of the IAAF through the mark he set in Barcelona, breaking all previous records with a throw of 85.57m – a world junior record that has become one of the most stunning marks in world championship history, and one not expected to be broken soon except by its own holder, Qatari champion Ashraf Al Saifi, who achieved it while still of youth age competing in the junior category. Al Saifi, born in 1995, is seeking to make his mark again at the World Championships in Eugene, aware that his brother Ahmed Al Saifi is taking part with him in the championships for the first time, meaning the challenge will also be between the two Al Saifi brothers at the World Championships in Eugene
Promising athletes gaining experience
Through this championship, Qatar athletics federation president Dahlan Jumaan Al Hamad is focused on bringing forward new generations to achieve success in athletics, working with a forward-looking vision full of promise for many achievements in the near and distant future, through a clear plan aimed at sustaining generations of achievement in track and field. He has therefore fielded a number of emerging faces to take on the challenge alongside more experienced athletes, led by promising talents Ibrahim Musa and Ahmed Al Saifi.
IAAF meetings
Away from the track and field competition, the Qatar Athletics Federation, represented by Major General Dahlan Jumaan Al Hamad, IAAF vice-president and president of the Asian Athletics Association, will take part in IAAF meetings held on the sidelines of the championships, covering a wide agenda topped by the season calendar and IAAF championships, in addition to the IAAF Continental Cup, and the work of the federations’ committees and departments. The meeting will be chaired by Senegal’s Lamine Diack, president of the federation.
