Arab Games

Watching basketball at Al Garaffa stadium

The Pan-Arab Games have been taking place in Doha for the last two weeks.  Tonight is the closing ceremony.   All of the sport events were free to attend so we watched many events and were amazed at the facilities.

The Arab Games take place every four years and are open to Arab countries. Because 80% of Qatar's population is ex-patriots living here from other countries, there were loads of fans cheering each country participating.  We especially remember the Tunisians at the swimming competition and the Somalians at the basketball games.

Lisa and Tim at Al Shaqab outdoor arena

The horse jumping at Al Shaqab was a much-anticipated event.  The stadium is out-of-this-world beautiful.  It was built as part of Qatar's bid for the Olympics in 2020.  (The Olympic venue will be chosen in 2013.)  The stadium includes everything needed for Olympic Equestrian events: indoor and outdoor arenas, therapeutic pools, veterinarian facilities, stables.  The mascot for the Arab games is an Arabian horse named Wathnan. Along with the gold/ silver/ bronze medal, each athlete received a small replica of the Arabian horse.

Max, Taran, Simon watching trampoline competition

The gymnastics competition took place in the same spectacular facility as fencing and wrestling.  The trampoline event was fun to watch and the Qatar team performed very well.  In the end, Qatar ranked fourth in medal competition after Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco.

Watching football (soccer) competition

Every event also had lots of giveaway products.  We received scarves, glasses, flags, tattoos, stickers, IPod cases, pins advertising Qatar and the Arab Games.