Source: The Peninsula Qatar

The 13th edition of the School Olympic Program (SOP) will kick off from today at Aspire Zone, officials of the organising committee announced here yesterday.

The opening ceremony will be held today at 9.00am, informed Qatar School Sports Association (QSSA) Executive Director Abdulrahman Al Muftah, while speaking at a press conference.

This year’s SOP events will see school students from Qatar compete in 12 sports in the boys section and 13 in the girl’s category.

The SOP, a prestigious national sports program, is held annually as a collaborative effort of QSSA and Ministry of Education and Higher Education, with hundreds of students competing from all over Qatar.

The program goes in line with other initiatives in economic, social, human and environmental spheres undertaken by Qatar government as part of the Qatar National Vision 2030.

Al Muftah informed cycling event is likely to be added to the events, in both the girls and boys section.

“Last year 333 schools took part in various school competitions. We aim to continue to build on the success we had last year. The competitions saw 14, 700 students taking part in the various disciplines,” added Al Muftah.

The SOP is a national program that covers all the schools in Qatar. The SOP Organizing Committee aims to spread a culture of sports throughout Qatar’s schools and to engage the entire community in active and healthy lifestyles while retaining local values and traditions.

“We are looking forward to more participation in terms of number of school students taking part,” said the official of the organising committee.

The SOP activities which begin today will be held for the next six months with the curtains likely to come down on the event in mid April.

The six-month program of individual and group sports draws the participation of thousands of students to achieve its mission, where a close link between sports and other specific social fields is established in order to promote educating students and raising their awareness about other social areas of life. The program also illustrates how these areas can coexist with sport.

The last edition featured 12 sports including football, basketball, volleyball, handball, tennis, table tennis, fencing, gymnastics, athletics, swimming, chess and taekwondo.

Source: https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/28/10/2019/School-Olympic-Program-to-kick-off-today

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