20^th Official Asian Games Fun Run in Doha 18-03-2006

Over five hundred children from Doha sprinted to the finish line outside Khalifa Stadium in the newly built sports city as part of the Official Asian Games Fun Run which celebrated sport in Asia and highlighted the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006.

The fun run had a huge response from children in Qatar who are all eagerly anticipating the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006 taking place in their home country in December this year. It was not just the children taking part that took an interest in the event, there were also many spectators, who were there to see a piece of the action and show their support for the event. Orry, the official mascot for the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006, was also present to cheer on the participants of the run.

The fun run was organised by the Qatar Olympic Committee and supported by the Olympic Council of Asia and it was a great privilege that H. E. Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Secretary General of Qatar National Olympic Committee and Mr. Abdulla Khalid Al Qahtani, Director General of DAGOC were both present to open the event and start the fun run.

After the fun run each child that took part received a certificate of achievement and the wining children were presented with medals from Mr. Husain Ali Al-Musalam, Director General of Olympic Council of Asia as well as gifts from Qatar National Olympic Committee.

The event attracted wide-spread press attention with local TV station, Qatar TV, and Al Jazeerah Sports Channel airing the fun run event on the evening news. Daily English newspapers Gulf Times and The Peninsula and, Arabic daily papers, Al Watan, Al-Rayah and Al-Sharq all covered the fun run and featured it in the next days paper.