Qatar marked National Sport Day yesterday as thousands of citizens and residents, adults and children, flocked to the various venues around the country arranged by government agencies and other public and private organizations to take part in their favourite sporting activities. This year’s Sport Day was even more significant and reassuring as it comes right after Qatar hosted one of the best FIFA World Cups in history, which was praised by everyone as the most spectacular and well-organised sports event in recent history. This proved once again how a small country like Qatar can organize global events of such a huge scale without even a tiny glitch, thus proving the organizing capacity of the State and the strength of its sporting apparatus.
This Sport Day also saw a much larger crowd than last few years as people were happy to leave the pandemic years behind and move ahead with more vigour and enthusiasm. The new-found energy was particularly evident among the younger generation as they were the ones who were stuck inside for long as the world was busy fighting COVID-19.
Qatar is the only country in the world that celebrates Sports and healthy lifestyle in such a unique way, a day is dedicated to the same and the whole country comes together to join in the various activities thus instilling a healthy culture among all.
Along with people, leaders of the nation also marked National Sport Day. The Father Amir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Speaker of the Shura Council H E Hassan bin Abdullah Al Ghanim were at the Souq Waqif. H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, was at Qatar Foundation leading off a walkathon in aid of Turkiye and Syria called ‘Walk For a Cause’.
Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani participated in activities of the children of Shafallah Center for Persons with Disabilities, Al Noor Center for the Blind, and Orphanage Care Center - Dreama. Their Excellencies, Ministers, Ambassadors and other dignitaries were also part of the activities held around the country.
This year’s slogan for Sport Day, “The Choice is Yours”, makes it even more fascinating. As the new year chugs on let’s all choose to live a healthy life by becoming physically active and making sports a part of our daily lives. The choice is ours and let’s be prudent enough to choose right.
