A job well done

DOHA: The Qatar Gymnastics Federation (QGF) under the leadership of its president Mr Ali Ahmed Al Hitmi has done wonders for its way of functioning in the last one decade.

The QGF has received accolades for its active role in promoting the sport in the country, and Mr Al Hitmi showed praises on the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) and other stakeholders for the sport’s development.

“Without QOC’s support, we couldn’t have succeeded,” he added.

Recently, junior and sub-junior gymnasts travelled to Portugal for an extensive training programmes, which are a part of QGF’s development strategy.

Excerpts:  

Tell us about the QGF’s development programmes.

The QGF always has big dreams to promote gymnastics. We’re working hard to make the sport mandatory at schools. In the past couple of years, we’ve been able to form age-group teams for boys and girls. They’ve done well at the GCC and Arab Championships, but we want to achieve good results at top international competitions. That’s our target.

How the annual FIG World Cup have helped position Qatar as a sporting destination?

The sports world fully trusts Qatar. We have hosted and organized multiple tournaments, including the World Championships in 2018 which featured 360 gymnasts.

Doha annually hosts a round of the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup. The past tournaments have helped us in a big way to understand the intricacies involved in hosting a major event.

Several teams have had come to Doha for training in the past. How has that helped QGF?

In the past, gymnasts from Great Britain, Australia, Indonesia and some Arab nations have trained in our training center. We’re happy that they preferred Doha. It’s something that we’re proud of. It also helped us in a big way as our own gymnasts also got to train and shared experiences with them.