Girls can now pole vault in Qatar

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/a ... rent_id=29

As girls prepare for GCC competition in Doha, mentalities shift
By Matthias Krug

Athletes, coaches and family members of the Qatar women’s athletics team pose for a group picture
IN a scene unthinkable just ten years ago, parents, coaches and athletes of Qatar's women's athletics team met at the weekend for cake and coffee — and to discuss their daughter's sporting progress ahead of a GCC competition in Doha at the start of April.
Most of the slices of cake remained untouched, owing perhaps to an increased sense of nutritional awareness, or else the general sense of excitement and novelty that hung in the air.
"This training camp is for the competition in April," explained Nosaiba Ajoub, who specialises in 100 and 200 metres sprint, "We are here to train a lot, morning and afternoon. It is better for us to stay here in the hotel so we don't lose a lot of time. This is a big chance for us to improve."
Whilst the camp takes place in Doha during the school holidays, the girls are lodged in a hotel away from their families in order to concentrate completely on their training — an indicator of just how serious women's sport here has become.
"We can see our parents every Friday, meet them and talk to them," Nosaiba says, "If we need something they bring it to us. It is not easy to be away from them, but it helps us to get to know each other better as a team. We miss our families but they also want us to be famous."
That first tentative shot at fame comes around at the start of April, but whilst the hosts may be looking to top the medals table, the really important thing is that these girls are taking part in sports at all.
As Tunisian coach Naima Ben Amara points out: "For many of the girls this is the first time in such a camp, and it is important for them to learn things like discipline, how to be on time, which food to eat. Also most of the girls are defended a lot by their parents, so here they learn to deal with responsibility themselves. In sporting terms, that is very important."
Amara says such opportunities to train twice a day have already lifted the Qatari women's team to a new level.
"The target is the GCC competition. Two years ago Qatar was very far away in the level, but now they have made a big jump. In the beginning you only had sprinters in girls athletics, but now we have athletes in all disciplines, hurdles, long jump, triple jump, pole vault. Most of these girls are students and so we are taking advantage of the school holidays to train more."
Team official Mariam al-Ishaq agrees that the experiences of the training camp have been overwhelmingly positive so far, saying "This is good for the girls and for us, an opportunity to meet with the parents and make sure everyone is relaxed and happy. The relation between the family and us is very important, they sit with us and we talk and make sure their daughters are feeling well here."
With families being the crucial factor in allowing their daughters to participate in sports, Ishaq is upbeat about how much mentalities towards women's sports have changed in the country.
"Just now we had a family who showed us their small daughters and said: this is for the future. Now we already have the sister but the father brought her three smaller sisters and told me: see, they are for the future. For the next year and the one after."
Ishaq believes that in just under two years time most Qatari girls will be participating in sports.
"After one and a half year you will see most girls in sport, I think by 2011 you will have 95% of Qatari families allowing their girls to take part. Now already you find girls in all sports: chess, fencing, shooting, volleyball, basketball, swimming, and with us in athletics. So the signs are encouraging."
But with new girls joining every day, the developments in women's sport have not just been limited to locals. Reema Allen Thomas and Jyothi Jarnadanan are two athletes of Indian origin who are looking to win medals for Qatar in the forthcoming competition in April.
"We are not nervous just yet," they say with an excited smile, "but let the competition come a little bit closer and we will be. We are provided with the best facilities and great coaching so it is a wonderful opportunity for us."
Thomas Mathew, the proud father of one of the girls, agrees. "We are proud to see her in the Qatari team. We have lived in Qatar over 20 years and now we feel half Qatari. It is very encouraging to see that the government is giving a lot of support to women's sport in the country."
And his wife adds: "One day in school they came and saw her talent, so we are very happy to see her competing so well in sports now. And it is also good to come to an event like this and meet other parents."
At the end of the day, officials, athletes and parents came together for a group photograph, but the slices of cake on the table still remained largely untouched.
But for Ishaq, these are touching moments. "Every moment, every hour, I learn from these girls. They are helping me in my life. This is important in sport: to learn from other people. No matter if they are bigger or smaller than you, you learn. This is life."

[dj]

good morning

very interesting... just down the road and our “arc” enemy ...Qatar.

they are hosting the women and we are hosting the GCC for men. The competition sites will be about a hour apart on the respective sides of the boarder…

there are on the same days... so I probably want get to see the women’s meet… GCC means Arab states on the Gulf.. From Kuwait, south and west around the horn… 7 countries.

several countries have women competing.. some were in the games..

dj