ASPIRE launches nationwide search for future sporting champions

Working closely with the Department for Physical Education at the Ministry of Education, ASPIRE has devised an advanced program which examines the physical, emotional and intellectual readiness of Qatari students to become tomorrow's sporting champions. Successful student athletes will then be invited to join the ASPIRE Academy.

For the first time in the history of the region, the talent identification program will also test female students for athletic potential, sharing data from the tests with their schools to help identify potential future competitors.

Phase one - "ASPIRE Bronze" - will test all grade six students in public schools and many in private schools, for body-shape and physical characteristics, so that assessors can understand the students' general level of fitness and athletic potential. Specially trained physical education tutors from Ministry of Education schools, who were trained for a week on conduction evaluation techniques, assist in the student evaluations at test sites across Qatar.

The second phase - "ASPIRE Silver" - will see around 300 of the successful athletes from the "ASPIRE Bronze" stage being invited for more detailed testing. These students, along with selected athletes from local federations, will be examined across a range of physical and practical tests that measure set performance characteristics to identify sporting potential.

Phase three - "ASPIRE Gold" - will see the selected students participate in a training camp at ASPIRE, working with a team of highly qualified international coaches and students from the Academy. The students who achieve superior performance levels will then be invited, in consultation with their parents, to attend the next academic year at ASPIRE.

In addition, students involved in the talent identification program in 2004 who narrowly missed out on selection, will be offered another chance to try out, through limited selections conducted by Aspire.

All participating students in the program will be awarded a certificate, registering their participation. Successful candidates in the first phase will be presented with a Bronze certificate which invites them to participate in the ASPIRE Silver stage of testing, where, if they are successful, they will receive a silver certificate inviting them to participate in the Gold phase.

Candidates who complete all three phases will be presented with a Gold certificate that entitles them to become students at ASPIRE.

Dr. Andreas Bleicher, ASPIRE's sports manager, said, "The talent identification program is probably the most far-reaching and in-depth study of sporting potential ever undertaken in the Middle East. Not only will it help identify sporting talent that can be nurtured and developed at ASPIRE, but it will also provide us with a major insight into the depth of talent and levels of athleticism of children throughout Qatar."

"Successful students who are selected through the Talent Identification Program will be offered the opportunity to become members of one of the world's most advanced sporting institutes based here in Doha. It is no exaggeration to say that this program could uncover future world champions who will achieve great things for Qatar," added Dr. Bleicher.

The program will encourage students at all levels of ability to take a greater interest in sport and physical exercise. The 'Bronze-Silver-Gold' approach is designed to encourage students to aim for Olympic success and to perform to their full ability.

In addition, the test data will enable schools to track overall levels of fitness, to uncover talented student-athletes and encourage them to take sport seriously, boosting the growing sporting culture in Qatar.