At the Hamad Aquatics Centre, the 28th GCC Aquatics Championships, which are organised by the Qatar Swimming Association, begins today. Six Gulf countries will be competing.
The championship will include swimming, diving, and water polo competitions. Athletes will be required to abide by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) and the Gulf Cooperation Council’s technical committee’s regulations.
After completing training camps in Bulgaria, Team Qatar swimmers and water polo players are ready to take on the challenge at home. Divers trained in Belarus as they prepared for Sunday’s finals.
Winning 34 medals, including 17 gold, 10 silver, and seven bronze medals in Kuwait, Qatar’s Aquatics team won the age group title at the GCC Aquatics Championship in 2019. It is important for the Qatari team, which has won first place for the last four editions of the Gulf Championships, to achieve results that reflect the level of development of water sports in Qatar.
For their efforts, they won 9 medals in the general stage competitions (7 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze) and 4 in the ten-year stage (a gold and 3 bronze). As part of today and tomorrow’s swimming competitions, the ages will be broken down into general stages for each group (11-12, 13-14, 15-17 years old). Both the U-10 and open competitions will take place on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
28th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Aquatics Championships, organised by the Qatar Swimming Association, kicks off today at Hamad Aquatics Centre with the participation of six Gulf countries. #Qatar pic.twitter.com/oXZw3gQila
— Marsad Qatar – English (@marsadqatare) August 19, 2021
The competition programme for the first day will include 24 races. Morning races include the 800m freestyle, 50m freestyle, 400-meter medley relay (with 100-meter butterfly), and 4×200-meter freestyle relay. The morning session will also feature 50m freestyle, 200m medley, 100m butterfly, and 200m backstrokes for the 13-14 age group, as well as 50m freestyle, 200m medley, and 100m butterfly for the 11-12 age group.
Four-by-one hundred-meter races will be held in the evening session for 15-17-year-olds in the 400-meter freestyle, 50-meter butterfly, and 100-meter breaststroke categories. For 13-14-year-olds and 11-12-year-olds in the 400-meter freestyle, 50-meter butterfly, 100 breaststrokes, 200-meter backstroke events will be held in addition to 4 x 100-meter freestyle races in the 400-meter freestyle.
Competitors will be divided into age groups (11-year-olds to 14-year-olds), while water polo competitions will only be open to those under the age of 18. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the organising committee decided to postpone all of the championships scheduled for 2020 until this year instead.
