Member's News
No.45
September 2005
 
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Tomorrow's Sporting Champions Take Their First Steps on the Ladders to Success
Katia Abboud, Qatar


School-Children in Qatar have been Offered the Chance of Training and Studying in One of the World's Most Advanced Facilities
A group of children from across Qatar have been handed a "golden ticket" which offers them a unique opportunity - to train and study at one of the world's most advanced sporting academies, ASPIRE, based in Doha.
The student athletes will start at the Academy in September 2005. They do so knowing that they've been offered a chance which aspiring athletes around the world would relish and with the knowledge that they have already triumphed against competition from across Qatar.
These potential champions were chosen through a country-wide talent identification program, conducted by ASPIRE, which tested students in schools across Qatar. Coordinating closely with the Qatari Ministry of Education, the talent identification team took student athletes through a three-stage program - Bronze, Silver, and Gold - which examined their physical, emotional and intellectual readiness for sporting excellence.
This year, more than 5,000 children were put through their paces during the "ASPIRE Bronze" evaluation stage. This involved each student being examined for their body shape characteristics, such as standing and sitting height, arm span and body mass. Teachers and coaching staff then put the children to the test with a range of challenges to determine lower body power, upper body power, distance throwing, speed and endurance.
For the first time, the talent identification program also tested female students for their athletic potential, sharing data from the tests with their schools to help identify future competitors.
The second phase - "ASPIRE Silver" - saw 300 of the successful athletes from the "ASPIRE Bronze" stage invited for more detailed testing. These students, along with selected athletes from local federations, were examined across a range of physical and practical tests that measure set performance characteristics to identify sporting potential.
For the final Gold phase, the candidates participated in a training camp at ASPIRE, working with a highly qualified team of international coaches from the Academy to find out whether they have the right attributes to train to be professional sportspeople.
Successful student athletes who made it through the final stage have now been offered the chance to join ASPIRE for the next term. Each successful entrant will have the opportunity to fully develop their potential in a range of sports, including track and field, table tennis, squash, gymnastics, aquatic events and football.
Ultimately, these students are being offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. ASPIRE provides exceptional facilities, including full educational and recreational facilities, advanced dormitories, an amphitheatre, lecture halls, state-of-the-art sport science facilities, seven outdoor football training fields and state-of-the-art fitness rooms and physiotherapy.
The Academy is distinguished by a philosophy which aims to develop the whole student, providing them with full academic and sports development so that they have the widest possible range of opportunities in adult life.
In addition, the students' progress will be tracked and supported by ASPIRE's physiological, biomechanical and psychological programs. ASPIRE Sport Science programs are using the latest technology, equipment and expertise. The student athletes are also supported by sports medicine and sports physiotherapy
The talent identification process is an annual event in Qatar, as part of ASPIRE's ongoing mission to unearth new talent in the region. ASPIRE will also offer scholarships to talented student-athletes from around the world, so that the Academy will eventually be home to a fully international community of world-class athletes.
Beyond the opportunity offered to its own student athletes, coaches at the Academy hope that it will play a major social role, encouraging everyone in Qatar to take a wider interest in physical fitness. One of the benefits of the talent identification program is that everybody has a chance to take part and students who don't make the grade this year could have the chance, with training and dedication, to enter again next year.
Leading figures at ASPIRE argue that this, combined with the motivational impact of witnessing the sporting success of the student athletes who made it through the "ASPIRE Gold" phase of the talent identification process, will hopefully stimulate more students to get involved in sport. In addition, the data provided offers an important resource for those involved in developing sporting programs in Qatar.
Dr. Andreas Bleicher, ASPIRE's sports manager, said, "The talent identification program is probably the most far-reaching and in-depth study of sporting potential ever undertaken in the Middle East. Not only does it help identify sporting talent that can be nurtured and developed at ASPIRE, but it also provides us with a major insight into the depth of talent and levels of athleticism of children throughout Qatar."
The talent identification program is not the only activity which ASPIRE is supporting to encourage greater physical fitness and "sport for all" in Qatar. It runs a range of fitness classes for the local community, in addition to an innovative "First Steps to Fitness" program, which aims to instill a healthy attitude from an early age with an exercise program catering for pre-school children.
As Qatar moves forward with its ambitions to become the sporting hub of the Middle East, ASPIRE is playing its role in selecting, supporting and developing the champions of tomorrow. Its talent identification process - which has attracted global attention in the sports world - plays a vital part in supporting this mission and vision.


Katia Abboud
Public Relations Officer - ASPIRE
P.O.Box 22287, Doha - Qatar
Tel: (+974) 413 6447
Fax: (+974) 413 6060
Email: Katia.Abboud@aspire.qa
www.aspire.qa



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