Chris Earle (left), Director of Sport at Aspire Academy shakes hands with Qatar Table Tennis Association President Khalil Al Mohannadi after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at a press conference at Aspire Academy in Doha, yesterday. PICTURE BY: KAMMUTTY VP
BY DENZIL PINTO
DOHA: Aspire Academy’s Director of Sport, Chris Earle said the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) deal with Qatar Table Tennis Association (QTTA) can help improve the sport overall in the country by finding and coaching promising players.
Each year 3,000 selected boys aged between 11 and 18 will receive coaching and strong education programmes at Aspire Academy with the aim of developing to succeed at all levels.
After signing the MoU with QTTA President Khalil Al Mohannadi at a press conference in Doha yesterday, Earle said it will be a tough task but is confident of producing positive results.
Speaking to The Peninsula, Earle said: “We are in competition with a lot of different countries to produce table tennis players and we are in a country which has a very small population, so we have to be very careful and precise in how to do that.”
He added: “At Aspire Academy, we recognise that the QTTA is responsible for the overall development of the sport and the development of players. What we have to do is find players from the age of 11, and bring them into the Academy from the age of 11 right through until 18.
“We will provide them with best quality coaching, really strong education programmes so they don’t have to travel between a training programme at school. They can just walk down the corridor and five minutes later they will be playing table tennis.”
He explained: “They will also get very good sports psychologists so they will have physiologists, psychologists and a whole range of support staff which will help them with the development they need. It will be hard work for the boys because this is an environment of excellence. We will make sure they are pushed, they are constantly under pressure to be able to achieve because we know that is what our competitors in other countries are doing. We do that in a caring way and constantly looking to improve the boys.”
Table tennis has widely been dominated by China in recent years, most notably at the Olympic Games where the Asian country claimed gold medals in all categories at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London events. Earle believes the large population in the Asian country is a huge advantage but Aspire Academy and QTTA will be more ‘precise’ and ‘systematic’ on how they do things.
“We are looking at the competitors in what methods they use to develop their table tennis players. China is very dominant in their sport and they have some advantages. Their population is very huge. The number of boys we can select each year in Qatar is 3,000, while the Chinese will have millions. That is a disadvantage to us straight away. We have to be precise and be a bit more systematic in how we do things,” said Earle yesterday.
QTTA President Al Mohannadi also believes the deal will improve the sport in Qatar.
He said: “This is a very good operation and the purpose of this can help further develop the sport in Qatar. They will have good training camps and the players will learn and become better.”
Speaking of the MoU, Earle said: “Table tennis has been a long term sport for Qatar and have had big achievements as have the boys who have come through. We are also very excited about the future and the future would not happen with the thought of what we think in which Aspire can help a federation and the delivery of table tennis in the future.”
He added: “In terms of sport development in this country, we are responsible for the development of the game and we aim to work with QTTA to achieve their objectives. We are very proud and excited to sign this deal.”
Speaking of future possible deals with other sporting federations, Earle said: “We will be signing a deal with Qatar Athletics Federation (QAF) soon. That is one of the bigger sports for us. We have signed an agreement with Fencing and Shooting federations. Apart from football, it is more likely we will only deal with individual sports because having done an analysis of sports of what we think Qatar can be successful in, it’s difficult because of the population size - for example to get enough Qataris to play a team sport to succeed in international level.” THE PENINSULA
