Qatar girls gunning down barriers
Agence France-Presse, Doha
Seven women from the tiny oil-rich state of Qatar will take a giant leap into the record books at the Asian Games - win or lose.
That's because they will become the first female athletes from the Arabian Gulf state, traditionally a conservative Muslim, male-dominated region, to be allowed to take part in the tournament.
The seven, all entered in the shooting competition, are not expected to feature in the medals shake-up, but they are determined to show that they can hold their own at the event especially since Qatar is due to host the next edition of the Asian Games in 2006.
"The shooters have been performing very well. They are training regularly and improving their personal scores all the time," said Dr Anisa al-Hitmi, the head of the Qatar Women's Sports Committee.
Hussa al-Assery, Baheea Khamees, Bano Hejazi, Mona al-Hugaily, Laila Hussain, Sabika al-Muhannadi and Matra al-Assery make up the team and they recently took part in the world championships in Finland where they finished ahead of Brazil and France, countries with years of international experience.
"Brazil and France have a long history of women's participation in sport so it was a major credit to Qatar that our shooters did so well," Dr al-Hitmi said.
"Every one at the event was surprised by the standards achieved by the Qatari team. In fact, the German team even congratulated them."
The women are being trained by Marina Slokodinova of Russia and Nicola Lecev of Bulgaria both ex-Olympic shooters themselves.
Furthermore, the shooters are blazing a trail for other women in the country who are keen to be involved in sport - Qatar has already started training girls in gymnastics, handball, volleyball, table tennis, taekwondo and karate with the aim of taking part in international events.
A Qatari women's team won the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) table tennis championships in February thus proving that they are capable of not being disgraced.
Dr al-Hitmi added that the target of the Qatar Women's Sports Committee was to increase the representation of women in all sports-related fields to about 40% by the time the 2006 Asiad is held in Doha.
"Besides sportswomen, we intend to train women volunteers, referees, technicians and officials so that they can attain international standards while still respecting Islamic values."
Qatar, with a population of just over 500,000, is no stranger to breaking ranks with its neighbors when it comes to involving women in sport.
It has already staged two WTA tennis events in the capital city Doha while, in 1998, it became the first Gulf state to invite foreign women athletes to take part in an international sports event when it staged an IAAF athletics grand prix meeting.