With only 100 days to go before the Doha 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships, Qatari para-athletes Abdelrahman Abdelqader and Mohamed al-Khubaisi commemorated the milestone by visiting schoolchildren during their summer sports camp in the SFQ Academy.

The IPC Athletics World Championships will be held in Doha’s Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium from 22 to 31 October 2015. The Championships will feature around 1,500 athletes from more than 100 countries and will serve as one of the last major competitions before the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.  

Schoolchildren from 4 to 14 years of age welcomed Asian Para Games medalists Abdelqader and Khubaisi who are set to compete in the shot-put and wheelchair race events respectively. Abdelqader, who competed in the London 2012 Paralympic Games, started his para-athletics season with a gold medal in shot put at the Fazza International Athletics Competition. Meanwhile, al-Khubaisi claimed gold earlier this year in the T34 Men’s 100m and 200m events in Beijing. 

Speaking during his visit, Abdelqader said: “It is a dream come true for me to compete in the IPC Athletics World Championships in front of a home crowd, with friends and family cheering me on – this will surely be the highlight of my career to date.

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“The World Championships will be a perfect opportunity to raise awareness of para-athletics and disability sport in Qatar and across the whole region. I really hope that we will inspire a new generation of athletes from the region.”

The World Championships will see intense competition as elite para-athletes battle to qualify for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. Paralympic medallists, world-record holders and defending World Champions, including Jonnie Peacock, Hannah Cockcroft and Terezinha Guillermina will will showcase their incredible abilities in a bid to become the greatest athletes in the world.

The Championships will also help to capture the attention of audiences and raise the profile of para-athletics across the Middle East.