Due to the current political situation in Qatar and our inability to fly easily to other GCC countries, the BSME Principals in Qatar initiated a sports games for schools just in Qatar. This meant that, instead of 100 students taking part from Qatar schools, at least 300 were given the opportunity to compete at Aspire Dome, the world’s leading indoor sports facility. What a fantastic opportunity for our students!
What a weekend it was, too! Our mission at NAISAK is to encourage children to work hard, show respect and take responsibility for themselves and their actions. This year’s teams were excellent role models for this. Students began in the pool competing in 25m and 50m races. With no pool to practise in at school, our chances were slim but entering meant we would gain valuable points for our overall team score. Our small team did extremely well to complete the races they did showing determination and courage. Jenelle got a standing ovation for her 50m freestyle, which kept her going until the end of the race. The boys knew they were not going to win the individual medley relay, however, Jermaine reminded the team that ‘we can do this and still lose happy’, which is a perfect example of true sportsmanship.
Friday afternoon was Basketball for the boys and Football for the girls. Both faced more experienced teams but the more they played the better they got. Sarah and Heba both scored goals to get a win against Gems while Asiana and Arwa were strong in defence and Maymona saved some really hard shots to prevent more goals being scored. At the end of day 1, we were in joint 7th position out of 11 schools.
The team returned to Aspire on Saturday morning for Athletics. Again, this is a sport we find difficult to do at school but that was not going to put our students off. They entered every event in the competition even if they had never done it before. A big round of applause to Muhammad Pratama for finishing third in the B Pool Shot Put, to Dana for completing a very difficult 800m and to everyone for giving their event everything they had.
The afternoon brought much excitement for the girls in the Netball tournament. Again, they were up against some very difficult opposition so they kept working hard and improving with every game. This hard work paid off as they won their last 3 games to help them finish 9th overall. A special mention to Arwa Hassan for winning the umpire’s player of the match three times. The final between extremely talented Doha College and Sherborne teams was nail-biting. The atmosphere was electric and this provided NAISAK girls with the opportunity to learn from others and experience the outcome of lots of training. Lots to aspire to for the future.
Despite finishing bottom of the league table after two full days of events, NAISAK walked away with the Fair Play trophy for 2018! This was voted for by teachers for their ability to keep going, encourage others, pull a man up when they were down and showing respect to others at all times. We are very proud of you all and you should be very proud of yourselves too!
The U11 team compete this weekend at Aspire in the same sports and we would love our parents’ support. This made a huge difference to the children from other schools so please join us if you can.
A huge thank you to Mrs Van der Walt and the company she works for, Bloomsbury, for our very smart new shirts. We are very grateful for your help!
A special mention to the PE staff who gave up their weekend to support the students and make this opportunity available to them!
