(MENAFN- The Peninsula) deepak john |
The Peninsula
Doha: Qatar National Sport Day (NSD) celebration was marked by sporting events, interactive activities, and fun competitions for all ages groups yesterday, highlighting importance of exercise in health.
On this occasion, Minister of Sports and Youth, H E Salah bin Ghanim Al Ali noted that the NSD in its 12th edition witnessed wide participation from all segments of society in the early hours of the morning.
He expressed his great happiness with the wonderful atmosphere in the vicinity of Aspire Zone and the great interaction with the events organised by all agencies and institutions in the country.
The Minister said,“Our goal on this day is to raise awareness about the importance of sport and to encourage its practice because of its physical and health benefits for individuals and societies.
The slogan of the NSD this year 'Choice is Yours' shows that sports is the right choice for healthy lifestyle. The Sport Day clearly shows the importance of sports and its positive reflections on physical and mental health.”
Speaking to The Peninsula, Mohammad Mohammadpour, Event organiser and community coach at Qatar Sports For All Federation (governed by Ministry of Sports and Youth) said,“On the occasion of sport day we have a big event at the Aspire Park. We have more than 15 stations out of which 12 stations are related to physical activities showing benefits of exercise. We have more than 12 stations of games where elderly, youth and kids can play.”
“The activities include football, volleyball, dodgeball, tug of war, chess, target practice with arrow shooting, tele-match agility and speed, coaches teaching kids how to do self defence and many other. A big stage is prepared with capacity of more than 50 people for group exercise, stretches and warm-up,” he added.
Sport Day is a very important day which Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani assigned for public on second Tuesday of February of each year. NSD was introduced to public to highlight the importance of physical activity and living a healthy lifestyle. The slogan for this year 'The Choice Is Yours' was selected because the infrastructure is there and you have to choose whether you have to live healthy lifestyle or not, he said.
He further said,“We partnered with Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Finance, Government Communications Office, Qatar Media Corporation, Ministry of Social Development and Family, Aspire Zone Foundation, Centre for Empowerment and Elderly Care (Ehsan) and we are proud to do this.”
He added that, QSFA has more than six locations in the parks, we provide fitness coaches for free every day.