Britain eyes gains from Qatari ‘experiment’

HE Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani handing over the QOC Commemorative Shield to Lord Sebastian Coe.

By Sports Reporter/Doha

His Excellency, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Secretary General of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) met yesterday with Lord Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the British Olympic Association and formerly the chairman of the 2012 London Olympic Games.

HE Sheikh Saoud welcomed Coe to Doha and pointed to the distinguished relations between Qatar and the United Kingdom in all aspects, particularly in the sports arena.

He also highlighted London’s successful organisation of the Olympic Games under Coe’s leadership.

For his part, Lord Coe hailed the sports renaissance in Qatar, pointing to the major events held in Doha, including the Diamond League’s season-opening round, which kicked off Friday at the track and field of Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium at Qatar SC amid wide participation of star athletes.

During the meeting, the two sides reviewed aspects of sports cooperation between the two countries, discussing plans and mechanisms needed to activate the mutual co-operation as part of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) they signed two years ago.

The productive meeting also discussed exhaustively the cooperation in school sport, where Britain got valuable benefits from Qatar’s pioneering initiative “ Schools Olympic Program” which was kicked off in 2007.  Britain is arranging to organize “Get Set” programme next year, following its successful organisation of London Summer Olympic Games 2012.

At the end of the meeting, HE Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani handed over the QOC Commemorative Shield to Lord Sebastian Coe.