Under the chairmanship of HE Major General Staff Dahlan Jumaan Al Hamad, president of the Qatar and Asian athletics federations and vice-president of the IAAF, the board of the Qatar Athletics Federation held its fourth meeting of the 2013/2014 season, at 9:30pm on Tuesday and Wednesday corresponding to
: July 2014, at the federation’s headquarters, attended by: –
1. HE Dahlan Jumaan Al Hamad – Federation President
2. Mr Mohammed Ahmed Sulaiman – Assistant Secretary General
3. Mr Abdulrahman Sultan Al Nubi – Member
4. Mr Abdulhakim Mohammed Al Omari – Member
5. Ms Mai Yousef Sultan Al Mohammadi – Member
6. Mr Yousef Ahmed Abdullah – Finance Officer
7. Mr Yaqoub Yousef Abdullah – Vice-Chairman of the Technical Committee
8. Dr Jabbar Rahima Al Kaabi – Federation Technical Expert
HE opened the fourth board meeting by welcoming those present and wishing them success in their work, and thanked the board, the federation’s technical staff and employees for the efforts they made during the season, which culminated in numerous administrative, technical and organisational achievements for Qatar both locally and internationally, noting that the season had been outstanding and successful by every administrative, technical and organisational measure.
HE stressed, in the president’s communications item on the meeting’s agenda, that given the importance of keeping board members informed of the contacts, meetings, viewpoints, ideas and plans arising in the course of the federation’s international work, this item had been introduced to the board meeting’s agenda so as to help understand the nature of the federation’s work internationally and locally and to gain administrative, technical and organisational experience for the federation’s benefit. Accordingly, the federation president reviewed several matters in this regard, the most important of which were:
Doha has submitted a bid to host the 2019 World Athletics Championships, with Eugene in the United States and Barcelona in Spain also bidding, making them the rivals to the Qatari bid. God willing, Doha’s bid will be strong, especially since the IAAF has begun promoting, as part of its plans, the idea of extending the athletics season to give hot-climate countries the opportunity to host world championships, by extending it into September and October. A delegation from the IAAF will visit Doha in October to inspect the stadiums, hotels and Qatari preparations for hosting the biggest event in world athletics, after which the bidding countries’ files will be discussed at the IAAF meeting to be held in Monaco in November 2014.
HE reviewed the international events in which the Qatar federation had taken part, whether in terms of organisation or the achievements of the national teams, confirming that the international season had been marked by numerous achievements, especially in organising the Diamond League meeting, where more than six evaluation categories received an “excellent” rating – the first time the Diamond League evaluation had jumped to such outstanding levels, as the federation raised the professionalism and coordination of its work. Spectator attendance was excellent, as were the administrative, technical, rehearsal, public relations, transport and event committee aspects, with all committees making a clear effort that culminated in this excellent rating for our meeting. In this regard, he expressed his thanks and appreciation to all committee heads and their teams for the efforts they made towards the success of the meeting.
Our national junior and men’s athletics teams took part in numerous international championships, and our results were more than excellent, including an unprecedented achievement for Qatar as high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim topped the world in the high jump by winning gold at the World Indoor Championships held in Poland in March 2014, with teammate Femi Seun taking world bronze in the 60m. Qatar also topped the Asian continent in men’s indoor athletics by finishing first at the Asian Indoor Championships held in China in February 2014, and the junior team followed the senior team in also topping Asian junior athletics by finishing first at the Asian Junior Championships held in Taipei in June 2014, while the junior men’s and women’s teams also topped Gulf athletics, finishing first in all these championships, with our athletes setting Asian, Arab and Gulf records. In this regard, he offered his congratulations to all our athletes and coaches and to the administrative and technical staff of the national teams for these excellent achievements, which raised the name of Qatar high at international events.
Mr Yousef Ahmed Mohammed, the federation’s finance officer, then presented the federation’s financial report and future plans, and requested to be informed of the international championships the federation would organise in the coming years so they could be included in the upcoming budget.
The minutes of the board’s third meeting, held on 10/12/2013, were also reviewed and, after discussion and deliberation, approved. On technical matters, the minutes of the technical committee’s second meeting, held on 19/1/2014, and its third meeting, held on 1-2/6/2014, which included club proposals and proposals from technical committee members for the coming season, were discussed. Mr Abdulhakim Al Omari, chairman of the technical committee, also reviewed the minutes of the local championships evaluation meeting held on 25/5/2014 and, after discussion and deliberation, amendments were approved to help develop Qatari athletics and drive its progress forward. The technical committee’s annual report for the 2013-2014 season was also reviewed.
The heads of the Qatari delegations that took part in international championships presented their administrative, technical and organisational reports, covering the results of the national teams and the main positives and negatives that accompanied the delegation.
On development plans, board member and girls’ training centre director Ms Mai Al Mohammadi, and Salah Al Idrissi, technical director of the age-category teams, presented a strategic plan for developing women’s sport, covering numerous proposals, ideas and future plans to develop women’s sport in schools and clubs. HE praised the plan and asked them to translate it into figures and mechanisms so implementation could begin on the ground in stages. A committee was also formed to put forward ideas and plans for developing children’s athletics festivals and making them more effective, more entertaining, and more appealing and motivating for children to take part. The committee was made up of assistant secretary general Mohammed Ahmed Sulaiman, board member Ms Mai Al Mohammadi, federation technical expert Dr Jabbar Rahima, age-category technical director Salah Al Idrissi, and Ms Nawal Hammam.
At the close of the meeting, the federation president thanked the board members and the federation’s technical staff and employees for their efforts during the season, and urged them to give even more and to put forward new proposals, plans and ideas to help develop Qatari athletics.
