DOHA: Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser Al Ali took part in National Sport Day celebrations with workers in Asian Town in Mesaimeer.
He played basketball with workers and took part in a tug-of-war contest. He also visited the Cricket Stadium and watched a match.
The event was organised by the Ibn Ajyan Group which manages Asian Town, in collaboration with the Filipino community.
Games, including basketball, volleyball, football were held in front of the stadium and the cricket matches inside the stadium.
“More than 2,500 workers participated in activities,” said Riyaz Cheeroth, Manager, Sports and Recreation of the Group. The cricket tournament started on Monday and other games started early morning yesterday, Cheeroth added.
“We distributed T-shirts with the logo of NSD to each participant and trophies to the winning teams in various games,” he added.
“We launched a week-long campaign through social networking sites, banners and phone calls to attract our community members and we received a huge response,” said Delfin, a representative of the Filipino community. Participants were also allowed to register online.
Aspire Park was among the largest crowd-pullers as thousands of families visited the facility which was turned into a playground.
Families were seen sitting and watching their children playing for hours braving the cold winds.
Mostly people were in sport dress, especially children and their male family members.
Companies selling sport products set up miniature playgrounds inside their tents for football, basketball and marathon and children were seen in long queues waiting for their turn outside.
The Peninsula
