Brazilian beach soccer players take part in a training session yesterday at the Katara Beach ahead of the ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019 which kicks off today. Picture: Miriam Jeske/COB
Doha: Olympic medallists, global champions and most of the world’s top names in each of the 13 contested sports complete a stellar field that is expected to dazzle at the inaugural Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) World Beach Games Qatar 2019 from today.
The Local Organising Committee (LOC) announced that among the 1,300 athletes from 97 countries who have qualified to participate, are the 2012 Olympic silver medallist in the 10km of the open water swimming Haley Anderson (USA) and Georgia’s Dato Marsagishvili, who won bronze in wrestling (84kg) at the London Olympics. Besides Anderson, open water swimming will also feature 2019 world champions Kristóf Rasovszky (Hungary) and Ana Marcela Cunha (Brazil).
Three sports from the Tokyo Olympic Games programme will be contested in Doha: 3x3 basketball, skateboarding, and sport climbing.
The bouldering’s line-up includes the 2018 world champion Kai Harada (Japan) the world’s No 3, Sean McColl (Canada), and this year’s World Championships bronze medallist, Shauna Coxsey, from Great Britain. Sport climbing is about to make its Olympic debut in Tokyo, as is skateboarding which in Doha will feature the 2019 Worlds winner HeImana Reynolds (USA) as well as Sky Brown, Great Britain’s 11-year-old wonder girl, who won bronze three weeks ago at the World Skate Sao Paulo Park World Championships.
Mauricinho (Brazil), the 2017 World’s Best Player and his successor, Llorenç Gómez, from Spain, along with Russia’s Marina Fedorova, who was named the World’s Best Female player in 2018, will be in the spotlight in beach soccer, one of the most popular summer team sports.
Another discipline which is set to make its Olympic debut in Tokyo next year is 3x3 basketball.
Present at the ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019 will be the mighty Latvian team who won the silver medal at this year’s World Championships and punched their ticket for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The Latvian squad is led by Karlis Lasmanis the world’s No 2, Nauris Miezis and Agnis ?avars. The US team is captained by Dominique Jones, the fifth best ranked player in FIBA rankings.
Others to watch are Nicolas Parlier (France), a triple Kitefoil Racing world champion (2017-2019), and Daniela Moroz (USA), a four-time world championship’s gold medallist; Emmanuel Lejeune (Belgium), the Aquathlon 2018 World Champion; Beach tennis No 1 players Nikita Burmakin (Russia) and Giulia Gasparri (Italy); Cory Teunissen (AUS), a multi-medallist in water ski/wakeboard; and Martin Kolman (CZE) the reigning world champion in water ski/jump.
The 1st ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019 is the latest in an impressive list of prestigious multi-sport events that have been held in Qatar, including the Asian Games in 2006 and Arab Games in 2011.
Fans will be able to watch live streaming of competitions on the official website - www.awbgqatar.com - launched for the inaugural event.
