18th Arab Athletics Championship Opens in Doha Tuesday

Doha, May 20 (QNA) - The 18th Arab Athletics Championship, featuring over 350 athletes from 17 countries, opens here Tuesday at the Qatar Sports Club. Announcing details of the key event, Qatar Athletic Federation President Dahlan Al Hamad said, 368 athletes from 17 countries will be participating in the event from May 21 to 24. This four-day competition gives one last opportunity for the Arab athletes to book a place in the World Championships and the Youth World Championships, to be held in Moscow and Ukraine, respectively, later this year. "Like the previous events, we are confident that the Arab Athletics Championships to be held this week will be a huge success. It is the oldest event that was started in 1977, in Damascus, and its great that we have got the opportunity be the host nation. We would like to put our best foot forward," said Al Hamad. Six of Qatari athletes have qualified for the World Championships and QAF is looking forward to some good results in this event from the athletes to increase that tally. High-jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim, who won his event at Saturday's Diamond League meeting in Shanghai, would be Qatar's big hope to bring home a gold from Moscow. Barshim won the high-jump event in Shanghai with a jump of 2.33 metres. "We are hoping that we can bag a few more places from this tournament for the World Championships. This event gives all those Arab athletes who have missed out to have one more shot for a place in the World Championships and Im sure everyone will be giving their best," said Al Hamad. Qatar will be fielding 31 athletes including four women in the four-day event. The women athletes will be taking part in 100m, discuss-throw, hammer throw and heptathlon. QAF General Secretary and Director of the LOC Arab Athletics Championships Doha 2013 Mohamed Jassim Al Kuwari said, "Everything is going as per plan and we are ready to welcome athletes from 17 Arab countries. The Diamond League was a huge success and we hope we can attract good crowd for this event as well." Al Kass Sports channel will be the host broadcaster of the championships, broadcasting the event live on all four days of the competition. (QNA)