Doha: New President of Qatar Cycling and Triathlon Federation (QCTF) Dr. Mohammed Al Kuwari said that the first year of the Federation's new Board of Directors, which was elected recently for the Olympic period up to 2020, will be a year of challenges aims at finding strong Qatari national teams in all age groups.
In an interview with Qatar News Agency (QNA), Dr. Al Kuwari said the goal in the coming period is to prepare the national teams capable of competing locally and internationally mainly consisting of Qatari players from all categories and age groups of the Qatari community.
He noted that the new Board of Directors has decided to freeze hosting of all international tournaments this year in order to provide an opportunity to develop the internal activity and improve local expertise, except for the Gulf championship which will be held next March.
The Federation will host international tournaments again next year, the most important of which will be the "Tour of Qatar", he added.
During the coming period, the Federation is planning to organize strong local tournaments in a bid to discover local talents to represent the Qatari national teams, by working with bikes clubs, which are currently working as an amateur, and turn them into professional clubs belonging to the Qatar Cycling Federation, Dr. Al Kuwari pointed out, adding that the Federation will support and develop these clubs, according to the guidance of the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Qatari Olympic Committee.
He also revealed that there is a trend within the Board of Directors to launch the cycling sport in the Qatari clubs to participate in the domestic league.
He said that there are huge numbers of cycling practitioners who must be enrolled in clubs, stressing the need to exploit all available means in order to engage all Qatari society groups in this sport.
Dr. Al Kuwari also stressed the need to create a Qatari team for women to participate in regional and continental tournaments.
Speaking about foreign participations, he noted that the Board of Directors believed that this year will be an internal fundamental year, therefore Qatari teams will not take part in foreign tournaments in the current season, noting that they will take part in the Asian tournament that will be held in Bahrain.
