Qatar has started the New Year by winning several accolades in the field of sports. Not just the country’s sports persons, Qatar’s sports officials have also achieved new milestones for their services in their respective fields.
Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah stole the spotlight with his dominant title win at the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia on Friday. The rally star, who is also an Olympic medalist in shooting, led the 44th Dakar Rally from the opening qualifying stage to the final special to seal his fourth triumph in the world’s most famous off-road rally.
Combining with his French co-driver Mathieu Baumel, Al Attiyah won just three of the 13 stages but applied a master class race strategy to record a winning margin of 27min 46sec over nine-time WRC champion Sébastien Loeb. The fourth success for the Qatari meant that he equalled Ari Vatanen winning quartet set in Africa. Al Attiyah and Baumel remained on high alert to complete the grueling rally without a hitch. The Qatari star now sets his sights on the World Championship title.
At Aspire Zone in Doha, Qatar’s Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Younnousse were crowned the ‘King of the Court’ – their first title in this unique beach volleyball event. The Tokyo Olympics bronze medalists overpowered several favourite teams including defending champions Jonatan Hellvig and David Åhman to clinch their maiden crown.
Asmaa bint Thani Al Thani also resumed her journey of scaling new heights with success as the spirited Qatari mountaineer skied around 117km to reach the South Pole, and climbed Antarctica’s highest mountain - Vinson Massif, that stands 4892km tall.
In another achievement for Qatar, Nasser Ghanem Al Khelaifi, beIN Media Group Chairman, Chairman of the European Club Association (ECA) and President of Paris Saint-Germain was recognised as one of the most powerful people in international sport as part of SportsPro’s prestigious “Ten Influencers 2022” annual list last week.
Al Khelaifi tops the list for his efforts towards driving and shaping the global sports agenda in the year ahead, positioned alongside sports leaders such as President and Chief Executive of Discovery, David Zaslav.
Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of Qatar Tennis, Squash and Badminton Federation Tariq Zainal retained his position of Vice President of the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) for West Asia after his re-election last week as the federation reaffirms confidence in the Qatari official to develop the game across the continent.
