Sporting action attracts young visitors to MoQ
Mall of Qatar’s (MoQ) month-long National Sport Day events have significantly helped shift children’s interest from electronic gadgets and online games to sport and other recreational activities, many parents have said.
“Such initiatives, which we all know are good for our children’s health, speak louder than words. Since bringing my son here to play, he now prefers physical activities like crawling, jumping and running than any mobile games when at home,” Indian expatriate Sameer told Gulf Times.
Besides being free of charge to mall-goers, he said, these MoQ activities are safe, wholesome, and offer several prizes for participants, which make it more enticing to young children. What makes it more encouraging to take their children to the mall, Sameer added, is the Doha Metro, which connects MoQ to and from the Al Riffa station via the Green Line.
MoQ organised a variety of sports activities and challenges for different age groups, which started on February 1 and will run until February 29 as part of its National Sport Day celebration. These include mini basketball, football, athletics and golf, among others. Several children also enjoy the Anytime Fitness boot camp activity area, which allow young visitors to play and test their fitness abilities with the supervision of instructors.
“These sports and fun-filled activities absolutely help in slowly shifting their attention from unhealthy habits to healthy ones,” said Egyptian expatriate Mohamed.
Due to regular sport and recreational activities, he said, he saw how the children of his friends changed their habits and have become physically active despite the easy accessibility of smartphones, through which social media and digital games can be accessed.
“These children like to cycle, jog and play football than play mobile legends on their phones,” he said.
Mohamed hopes that such endeavours will continue yearround to motivate and inspire more children to become active. As part of NSD celebration at MoQ, live performances and shows such as “the energetic Zumba and Pound classes by Anytime Fitness” have also been attracting a large number of visitors.
Young gymnasts from the Qatar Gymnastics Federation also enthralled the audience yesterday with their stunning skills and performance on the Oasis Stage.