Qatar preview: Qatar targets first ever Olympic gold in Beijing

By sportswriter Li Jia

BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Qatar, host nation of the 2006 Asian Games, hope they can make history by claiming a gold medal in Beijing as they recorded none in the previous Olympic Games.

The Gulf country, which have announced the bid for hosting the 2016 Olympic Games, considered the Beijing Games of great importance, both for the competitions and for learning the experiences and lessons from the host nation.

According to the website of Oatar Olympic Committee (QOC), the country has fielded the largest ever delegation to Beijing with 22 athletes to compete in athletics, swimming, shooting, weightlifting, fencing, archery and taekwondo.

"We only managed two bronzes in the last Olympic Games," said the QOC official Hasson on Saturday. "We hope to win a gold in Beijing."

According to Hasson, Qatar has advantages in weightlifting and shooting.

Jaber Saeed Salem, ranked fourth in the men's over 105kg category weightlifting in Sydney Olympic Games, is a favorite in this event as he has always been in competitive sharpness and claimed many glories in Asia in recent years.

Salem qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games by finishing second in the 2007 World Weightlifting Championships in Tailand.

Skeet shooting is the other hopeful for Qatar as Nasser Salih AL-Attiya is attending his fourth consecutive Olympic Games here.

The shooting veteran, who finished fourth in the men's skeet shooting in Athens Olympic Games, captured his ticket to Beijing by winning the same category in 2007 Asian Shooting Championships.

Though Qatar is a very small country, with a territory even less than Beijing and only has a population of 300,000, the country's enthusiasm of developing sports and participating in Olympic Games is no less than big countries.

With its solid economic basis, Qatar has been working for building its capital Doha to be one of the international sports centers.

HH Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, president of the QOC, has said that the successful holding of Doha Asian Games has not only firmed the confidence of Qatar people, and also set a good foundation for Doha to bid for the Olympic Games.

Qatar submitted its bid for the 2016 Olympic Games with other six cities, but was eliminated after the first round. The QOC has announced that Qater will keep biding for the 2020 Olympic Games.

"Except the Games itself, Qatar has another task in Beijing, which is learning the experiences of hosting the Olympic Games from China," said an anonymous QOC official.

"One day, Qatar will be the host nation of Olympic Games and welcome the friends from the whole world," He added.