Ahlam Salem Al Mana, President of Qatar Women’s Sport Committee (QWSC), Ali Rashid Al Mohannadi, the Executive General Manager and Chief Operating Officer at QNB Group, exchange signed documents at a news conference in Doha yesterday. (QWSC) and QNB yesterday inked a three-year sponsorship deal that will see the bank supporting all activities of QWSC.
DOHA: The Qatar Women’s Sport Commitee (QWSC) and QNB yesterday inked a three-year sponsorship deal that will see the bank supporting all activities of QWSC.
This was announced by Ahlam Salem Al Mana, President QWSC, and Ali Rashid Al Mohannadi, the Executive General Manager and Chief Operating Officer at QNB Group, at a news conference yesterday.
The sponsorship reflects the bank’s commitment in backing the growth of women’s sport in Qatar, Al Mohannadi said.
“At QNB, we are fully committed to backing sports activities, and women’s sport in particular, to highlight the importance of sports and its values to our younger generation,” Al Mohannadi said.
“In coordination with the Committee, QNB will invite its female employees to participate in one of the sports activities, in order to raise awareness about QWSC’s important activities and events,” Al Mohannadi added.
Ahlam Salem Al Mana said QWSC had taken a major step forward with the new sponsorship deal.
“We’re grateful to QNB for its valuable and important sponsorship that would help QWSC achieve many of its goals when it comes to the growth of women’s sports, in the country” Ahlam Salem Al Mana said.
QNB sponsors a number of local tournaments, including Her Highness the Consort of the Emir of Qatar’s Cup Final in football, handball, table tennis and the National Sports Day activities.
QNB will also be the exclusive sponsor of the women’s national teams at all local and international tournaments, Al Mohannadi said.
Some of the events backed by QNB include the Second International Handball Tournament for Women, the AFC Under-16 Championship, the Second Gulf Handball Tournament for Women, the Kuwait International Open Championship, and the Asian Championship for Juniors.
In addition, QNB will also support sport-related conferences and workshops organised by QWSC, Ahlam Salem Al Mana said.
A couple of conferences to be backed by QNB include the Asian Football Confederation’s workshop in Kuala Lumpur and the Fourth Women’s Leadership Training Conference and the Academy Conference in Switzerland in addition to other related events.
“We thank QNB for this initiative,” Ahlam Salem Al Mana remarked.
The QWSC chief said Qatar had come a long way in promoting women’s sport in the country and the region.
She said she was pleased to see the performances of Qatari female athletes in the last decade.
On Friday, Qatar beat Pakistan in the final of a Four-Nation Women’s Handball Championship.
“Yes, we are satisfied but we won’t stop. We will continue in our mission to get our girls better prepared for Olympic Games and other international events. We will build on our successes and take the level of girls’ involvement to a notch higher. When you go back 11 years, you would see that we were starting out to build on this dream. After realising our dream, we don’t want to stop. We want to get moving and step into next gear. The support of the higher authorities - His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has been very crucial in our rise to this level,” Ahlam Salem Al Mana said.
“We are very pleased with this tie-up. This sponsorship means our women’s teams in various disciplines will get a major lift,” Ahlam Salem Al Mana said.
“We have ambitious plans to promote women’s sports in the country. This kind of sponsorship not only does that but it also helps us create awareness about the popularity of our events.”
When asked if Qatar female athletes could win medals at top events like the Olympic Games, Ahlam Salem Al Mana said: “Yes, in the future we can win medals too. They (the athletes) would get all the possible support in terms of infrastructure, opportunity, coaching and training. This process will get us more medals.”
Ahlam Salem Al Mana added: “Our future course of action also involves getting more coaches in specialised beats. We are not just making soft promises. We have already worked on a new strategy and we will put that to practice as we go along. We will take care of our athletes. We will do everything to make them champion athletes.” THE PENINSULA
