Al Hamad calls on the athletes to give their utmost effort and determination to succeed
In an unprecedented move that drew praise from the African federations currently gathered in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, HE Major General Dahlan Jumaan Al Hamad, president of the Qatari and Asian federations and IAAF vice-president, made a historic visit to the training camp of our national middle-distance team, held at the international training camps base on the Ethiopian highlands, where he met, accompanied by Assistant Secretary General Mohammed Ahmed Sulaiman, with the national team’s technical staff and our national team’s champions.
Major General Al Hamad inspected the athletes’ accommodation and training programme, and was briefed on the technical monitoring programme tracking the athletes’ rising performance and standards under the training carried out by world-class coach Jama Aden, in preparation for upcoming commitments, foremost among them the Asian men’s championship next June, the Diamond League meetings, and the biggest challenge of all, the World Athletics Championships next August.
The only president to visit the camp
Although the training base on the Ethiopian highlands hosts athletes, Olympic champions and world champions from all over the world holding their camps in the area to benefit from its climate and conditions, Major General Al Hamad is the only federation president to visit this base and check on the athletes’ preparations, and his visit was seen as a major event at the camp, earning the appreciation of champions from various countries, since no federation president had ever before checked on his athletes at their training camp – a testimony recorded by champions from Ethiopia, Djibouti, Japan and China, as well as British champions training at the same base.
Champions of today and tomorrow
Major General Dahlan Al Hamad was keen to address our national team’s champions and urge them to give more effort and diligence to honour Qatari athletics in upcoming international challenges, especially given the great interest sport, and athletics in particular, enjoys in Qatar from the support of our wise leadership, which works towards Qatari excellence at all international, Olympic, regional and continental levels. Addressing the athletes at the camp, he said success would come only through hard work and patience, and that Qatar was one of the countries classified as developing steadily in athletics, according to IAAF studies and monitoring of the results and figures achieved by athletes in their various domestic championships and continental and world challenges across all categories, and that Qatar’s champions therefore had to be at the level expected of them in the country’s athletics development journey.
Major General Al Hamad added: “You are the champions of today and tomorrow, and your standards are being followed by the IAAF, so hard work and a determination to succeed are essential.” He added that ambition was important for athletes, but that this ambition had to be followed by great effort in order to achieve success, giving the athletes an example that a champion’s true worth lies in insisting on achieving success, and that whenever an athlete sets a goal before him and works towards it, he will certainly achieve it – so athletes must build their own glory through hard work, and success need not come from an athlete’s very first moment; an athlete must always learn from lessons, have the courage to achieve success, and not think about others’ successes but focus on his own. He said that when he received the support of our wise leadership to stand for the presidency of the Asian federation, he had studied his rival for the presidency at the time, India’s Suresh Kalmadi, for four full years, at a time when Kalmadi believed he was the best and would not lose the contest – but hard work and diligence proved greater than the confidence his rival felt, and success went to the more diligent man over the one who was confident in his abilities but did not work to achieve success, citing the saying: “Climbing to the top is easy, but staying at the top is harder,” adding that athletes must focus on excelling and maintaining that excellence once achieved.
A world-class coach leading Qatar
Al Hamad said the Qatar Athletics Federation, thanks to the generous patronage and great support of officials, had brought in the best middle-distance coach in the world, coach Jama Aden, who knows well how to build champions, which was why the federation had entrusted him with responsibility for Qatar’s athletics champions. He is a great coach and a big name in the world of athletics who has produced many world and Olympic champions, and will lead Qatar’s champions to the podium now and in future, so the athletes should make the best possible use of him for the sport’s best future.
Congratulations from our national team’s champions to Major General Al Hamad
Our developing Qatari champion Musaab Abdulrahman Balla, on behalf of the athletes, congratulated HE Major General Dahlan Al Hamad on winning a new term as president of the Asian Athletics Association until 2019, wishing him success in the IAAF vice-presidential elections. Musaab said that just as he works to honour Qatar, the athletes were keen to honour Qatari athletics and to honour him as president of the Asian federation on the continent with the greatest human resources of any in the world, affirming that their focus at the camp was heavily on developing their level and facing upcoming challenges for further achievements for Qatari athletics.
World-class coach Jama Aden: Major General Dahlan’s visit to the camp left a great impression on the athletes
World-class coach and champion-maker Jama Aden praised Qatar’s athletics champions at the camp, saying the training programme was proceeding as planned and that he had many athletes whose levels were improving in training and whose personal marks were getting better, promising that this year would be a year of complete success for Qatari athletics administratively, through Dahlan Al Hamad’s success in leading Asian athletics until 2019 and his progress in the IAAF elections for the vice-presidency, affirming that Qatar’s champions, given the great interest shown in them, would go on to better things and honour the Qatari flag.
Coach Jama thanked Major General Dahlan Al Hamad for his visit to the camp, saying it was the first time a continental federation president and a national federation president had visited his athletes at their camp, something that earned everyone’s appreciation. He said that throughout his career as a coach he had always worked for success and had produced many Olympic- and world-level champions, male and female, but that he was greatly honoured to work in Qatar and under a man like Major General Dahlan Al Hamad, who loves success and pursues it with great determination, affirming that his visit to the camp left a great moral impact on the athletes and made them happy.
Our national team’s list at the camp
Our national team’s list at the Ethiopian highlands camp included Musaab Abdulrahman Balla (800m), Jamal Hairan (800m), Musaab Adam (1500m and 800m), Mohanad Khamis (steeplechase events), Abdalelah Haroun (400m), Khalid Al Shahrani (400m hurdles), Mohammed Abbas (800m and 400m) and Ibrahim Abdi (1500m and 800m).
This period in the history of Qatari athletics has seen champions Ibrahim Abdi and Musaab Adam promoted to the senior category, having been in the youth category only a short time ago, and after their promotion they were able to develop quickly and will have a good future, while the camp also features Mohanad Khamis, from the junior category. The champions affirmed that they would honour Qatar’s national team colours at the upcoming Arab Championships, considering it their first challenge.
