28th GCC Aquatics Championships kicks off today in Doha

The 28th Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) Aquatics Championships, organised by the Qatar Swimming Association, will kick off today at Hamad Aquatics Centre with the participation of six Gulf countries.

The competitions will be held from Aug. 19 to 22, and will include three aquatic sports: swimming, diving and water polo. All competitions will be held in accordance with the laws of the International Swimming Federation (FINA) and the regulations of the technical committee of the organising committee of the GCC Championships.

The first day’s programme includes 24 races. The 800m freestyle, 50m freestyle, 400m medley, 100m butterfly and 4x200m freestyle races will be held in the morning for the 15-17 year category, 50m freestyle, 200m medley, 100m butterfly and 200m backstroke for class 13-14 years age, and 50m freestyle, 200m medley and 100m butterfly for the 11-12 year category, while the evening session will witness the 400m freestyle, 50m butterfly, 100m breaststroke, 200m backstroke, 4x100m freestyle races for the 15-17 year category, and 400m freestyle 50m butterfly, 100m breaststroke and 4x100m for 13-14 years, 50m butterfly, 100m breaststroke and 4x100m freestyle for 11-12 years.

Diving competitions also will be held for age groups (11 years and below, 13 years and below, 14-15 years, and the public), while water polo competitions will be held for the age group 18 years and below.

The Qatari teams have completed their preparations for the tournament, with the swimming and water polo teams attending two camps in Bulgaria, and the diving team setting up camp in Belarus.

The three teams seek to achieve results that reflect the development of the level of Qatari water sports and their prominent presence in the Gulf championships. The Qatari team won first place for the age groups categories in the last four editions of the tournament.

The last edition of the GCC Aquatics Championships was held in Kuwait in 2019, in which the Qatari team won the title of the age groups after winning 34 medals, including 17 gold, in addition to 10 silver and 7 bronze medals. They also won 9 medals (7 gold, a silver and a bronze) in the general stage competitions, and 4 medals (a gold and 3 bronze) in the ten-year stage.

The 28th GCC Aquatics Championships was scheduled for last year, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the GCC Swimming Organizing Committee decided to delay all the championships included in the 2020 calendar to be held this year.