Qatar is an ambitious country which has a long-term vision towards sports development, focused on its heritage and aimed at establishing a solid ground for its current and future generations.Qatar's vision is to become a leading nation in bringing the world together through sustainable sports development.Qatar has been on the right path towards this and has won world-wide acclaim by hosting many international sports events, including 2006 Asian Games, 2010 Asian Cup football, 2010 World Indoor Athletics, 2015 Handball World Championship etc.

There are more than 50 international events held in Qatar yearly. They include the European Professional Golf Tour's Qatar Masters Tournament, ATP Tour's ExxonMobil Open, WTA's Qatar Total Open for women, the IAAF Athletics Diamond League, Qatar Classic Squash, Moto GP, ITTF Qatar Open Table Tennis, Sail the Gulf Regatta, the Tour of Qatar Cycling, several high-profile football matches and various Marine Sports.

Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Secretary General of the Qatar Olympic Committee

'Sport plays a major role in Qatar. We have come a long way and achieved much success through our vision, and we are now taking it to the next level,' says Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Secretary General of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), which supervises the sports activities in the country, along with the recently-formed Ministry of Sports. There is no doubt that Qatar is truly becoming a major sports center in the world.The first major push to make Qatar a sports hub came from His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who was the Crown Prince, in 1979. It was during this time that some of the top sports clubs in Qatar were set up. And since 1995 when Sheikh Hamad became the Emir there has been a major boost for sports.Qatar has made multi-billion dollar investment to build international sporting infrastructure and also started to bid for hosting rights of several big events.

Qatar hosted the World Youth Soccer in 1995 at a short notice after Nigeria pulled out in the last minute. The next 30 years saw Qatar emerging as a major sports hub, playing hosts to several major events in different disciplines.

The country is also giving greater attention on educating and promoting healthy living among its citizens. Qatar Olympic Committee's unique programme for schools, named the Schools Olympic Programme, has become a big hit. Thanks to this, today all educational institutions in Qatar have physical education programs for boys and girls.Several indoor stadiums were also built to help the country's sportspersons to train and play even during summer months.The most prestigious and one of its kind facility is the ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence. The vision of the Academy is to create a unique facility that would discover and develop talented athletes from a young age and provide a total balance of sporting and educational opportunities.

Qatari high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim, who won a bronze medal at the London Olympics in 2012 and is the current world indoor champion, is a product of this Academy.Though football is the most popular sports in the country, handball, basketball, motor and marine sports are close to Qataris' hearts.Multiple rally champion and bronze medallist in shooting at the London Olympics Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah is the country's best-known sportsman. Nasser has won the Dakar Rally twice and the Middle East Rally Championship many times.Qatar's present Emir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is also a keen sports enthusiast, having played tennis at the junior level. Qatar has a unique record of being the only country in the world where the ruler is also heading the National Olympic Committee. It goes to prove that sports enjoys very high importance and it has a significant role to play in this country. Sheikh Tamim is also a member of the International Olympic Committee. Qatar is one of the very few countries in the world which has a day dedicated as National Sports Day. From 2012, Qatar been celebrating the second Tuesday of February as National Sports Day. All these point to the significance of sports in the Qatari society.

Qatar was recognised as the World's Leading Sports Tourism Destination at the World Travel Awards in 2013, defeating other top contenders like Abu Dhabi, Auckland, Beijing, Dubai, Durban, London, Melbourne, New Orleans, Rio de Janerio, Seoul, Tokyo and Vancouver.

Qatar hosted the season-ending WTA Tennis Championships for women from 2008 to 2010 and in 2010 it also hosted the Asian Cup football and the World Indoor Athletics at Doha's ultra-modern Khalifa International Tennis Complex. In 2015 Qatar hosted the Men's World Handball Championship and later this year Qatar will host the 2015 World Boxing Championship and the World Short Course Swimming.

Qatar has already won the bid to host the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championship and the 2022 FIFA World Cup, joining a select band of countries which has hosted football's ultimate showpiece event.Qatar has bid for the Olympics twice, for the 2016 and 2020 editions, but were unsuccessful. However it is only a matter of time before Olympics also came to this tiny Gulf country.

Women's sports is also getting a major boost in the country. The Qatar National Olympic Committee has a separate department to handle women's sports. Signaling the winds of change blowing across the Arab world, Qatar fielded three girls for the first time, at the London Olympics. Qatar has also produced the Middle East's first woman rally driver in Nada Zaidan. Qatar has overcome several barriers on its way to progressing into a modern state. In the field of sports they have won several international acclaim, both on and off fields. They are indeed marching ahead of others in Middle East and the Arab world.

(D. Ravi Kumar is Managing Editor of Doha Stadium Plus sports weekly)