* Event aims to attract more than 5,000 participants

The countdown to the third edition of Team Qatar's Flag Relay, to be held on December 13, began on Tuesday.

The event, organised by the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), is being held as part of this year’s Qatar National Day (QND) celebrations.

The 2019 Team Qatar Flag Relay will commence early in the morning on that day from the QOC headquarters and will cover areas such as the Doha Corniche, Qatar Foundation, Katara - the Cultural Village and Hamad International Airport, where the flag will be handed over to a pilot heading to Tokyo where Team Qatar is due to participate in the next Summer Olympic Games - Tokyo 2020.

The iconic event, which will be accompanied by a number of sporting activities, will bring together elite athletes, schoolchildren, members of different communities and the general public who will have the opportunity to carry the Qatari flag during the relay, QOC has said in a press statement.

A number of ace Qatari athletes, including world champion Mutaz Barshim and Abdulrahman Samba, have been named by the QOC as the Flag Relay ambassadors. Participants will have the opportunity to interact with them "at close quarters" during the event.

Registration for the event, which aims to attract more than 5,000 people from different segments of the society, is already open and interested participants can register via QOC’s social media platforms @Qatar_olympic.

The 2019 Team Qatar's Flag Relay rounds up a year of major sporting achievements for Qatar. Among the many feats recorded this year were the crowning of the national football team as the champions of Asia at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in the UAE, Barshim emerging as the world champion in the men’s high jump and Samba claiming the men’s 400m hurdles bronze at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha.

Besides these, a number of Qatari athletes, including Barshim, Samba, Abubaker Hayder, the Qatar showjumping team and shooter Mohamed al-Rumaihi, have secured qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.

The second edition of the Team Qatar Flag Relay, which took place last year, featured current and retired athletes as well as school students. The flag toured more than 300km across Qatar and the event involved a number of sporting activities, including cycling, running, swimming and others.




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