Students at Doha’s enviable ASPIRE sports academy will enter another busy round of local and international training camps in January and February, gaining valuable competition experience against athletes from Europe and Africa.
ASPIRE students undertaking programs in athletics, football, multi-sports and squash will compete against youth teams from their respective sports in countries including Portugal, Belgium, Austria, Holland, Spain and South Africa.
In addition to the overseas camps and competitions, several of the world’s most promising young footballers will also be on show closer to home when the likes of Celtic, FC Barcelona and Bayer Leverkusen visit Doha to take on teams from ASPIRE.
Taking advantage of the unrivalled facilities at ASPIRE, including both an indoor and outdoor pitches, for their own training camps, the European teams will offer a challenging level of competition for the already successful ASPIRE teams to measure their progress against.
Amsterdam, Cardiff and Vienna will be the key destinations for the academy’s squash teams where they will compete in major national tournaments, enabling them to hone their talents against international peers.
The talented athletics group will head to Stellenbosch in South Africa along with the multi-sport students, whilst some of ASPIRE’s footballers will benefit from visits to the football hotbeds of Spain and Portugal.
The training and education each ASPIRE student receives is amongst the most advanced in the world, ensuring that from an early stage they are equipped for the rigorous demands of international competition. Exposure to different cultures in this way, too, aids in each child’s personal and social development.
Dr Andreas Bleicher, Sports Director at ASPIRE, said: “By competing against other international youth teams and individuals, the ASPIRE students will gain a tremendous amount of experience, be that from a different training environment, high level competition or simply learning what the life of an elite athlete is like. This kind of experience is invaluable.
“One of ASPIRE’s key missions is to provide our students with a comprehensive education as well as attaining sporting excellence, and by visiting a number of different countries during their life at the Academy, we are giving them the perfect opportunity to do this.”
During the academic year the Academy offers a comprehensive learning environment to students selected through a rigorous talent identification process, focusing on supporting every young aspiring athlete in the fields of sporting, academic and social education.
Dr Bleicher concluded: “As intensive as the day-to-day training is for our students, nothing can replicate the challenges of international competition. As the world’s leading athletes prove time and time again, the way to the top is by consistently competing with the best and learning from them.”
ASPIRE, the Academy for Sports Excellence, Doha, was created with the dual aims of identifying and transforming promising student athletes into world renowned champions across a wide range of sports and to act as a beacon to draw sporting culture into the centre of life in Qatar and the surrounding region.
The Academy is distinguished by a philosophy which aims to develop the whole student, providing them with full academic, social and sporting development.
Unrivalled facilities mark the Academy out as one of the world’s foremost sporting and educational institutions, and entice an ever increasing number of visitors from across the spectrum of world sports to use or simply view them.
With one indoor and seven outdoor football pitches, athletics tracks, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, diving pool, combat arenas, gymnastics arena, specially designed weight rooms, lecture halls, dormitories to accommodate what will eventually become 1,000 students, a medical centre and more besides, much beneath the world’s largest purpose built indoor sports dome, every aspect of the development of elite athletes is catered for. ASPIRE is a place for those who dare to dream.
ASPIRE TODAY, INSPIRE TOMORROW
www.aspire.qa
