START: Teams make a dash for the tasks at the MOQP Challenge.

Nineteen teams battle for the MOQP Challenge at Sealine
By Anand Holla


The morning sun bore down gently on manicured lawns by the beach. It wasn’t nearly enough to warm the bones of the throng of 19 teams, sitting, walking, pondering, and plotting strategies to clinch the fourth edition of the gruelling Maersk Oil Qatar Petroleum (MOQP) Challenge.
Warming one’s bones, however, was not a concern for the contest had already caught fire. At the sprawling Sealine Beach Resort in Mesaieed, Qatar’s largest corporate team-building event, in one brilliant sweep, appeared to have brought out the athletes, fighters, runners, lateral thinkers, and never-say-diers, in each of the 90-odd men and women who participated in it.
Designed to raise awareness and funds to tackle diabetes in Qatar, the MOQP Challenge has raised in excess of QR1,000,000 to date, providing much-needed financial assistance for the Al Bawasil camp for children with diabetes at Aspire. The Challenge further promotes the work of Action on Diabetes, the leading public-private partnership initiated and funded by Maersk Oil Qatar.
On Saturday and Sunday, teams – comprising five members each – from varied sectors such as energy, health, higher education, advertising and professional services, battled through five inter-related stages that tested their physical and mental limits, to have their shot at becoming the MOQP Challenge 2015 champions.
Once registered, each of the team members were affixed with a unique timing chip – strapped on the wrist like a watch. Whenever the chip would be dipped or inserted into a Fixed Control (FC) – several of which are set up across the resort premises – the latter would record the action on the chip. This would serve as proof of the person or the team having visited a specific location or met a certain prescribed criteria. This also made one thing clear – there would be a whole lot of FCs scattered all over, and therefore, there would be a whole lot of running involved to reach them.
The five stages were themed around a key lifestyle issue related to diabetes: Eyes – degradation of eyesight, for instance, is one of the long-term effects of uncontrolled diabetes – Calories, Nerves, Flow, and Feet.
Over one-and-a-half days, teams racked their brains to solve cryptic problems, navigated their way around a cleverly designed course using Challenge Maps that give locations as Grid References (GR), ran like their lives depended on it, rode mountain bikes and kayaks, built catamarans, scoured the entire beach and beyond through the night, joined long plastic pipes to sloppily guide water into tubs, waded through the sea to complete tasks, avoided Sugar Traps – a bunch of annoying little devices hidden at various points, passing by which would incur the team a cruel 10-point penalty – like the plague, discovered the many predicaments of working together as a unit, and perhaps most importantly, discovered something new or revelatory about themselves.
With a massive 832 points, Maersk Oil – You can’t Diabeatus won the Challenge, while students from Texas A&M – Aggies came second with 733 points, marginally beating Schlumberger – The Blue Expendables who finished third with merely five points less at 728. It was as close a call at runners-up glory for another Maersk Oil team – Al Shaheen Oilers, who scored a total of 724 points and came fourth.
The other 15 of the 19 teams that slugged it out at the Challenge were: Dolphin Energy Ltd – Petroleum Blue, Maersk Oil – Diabeaters II, Occidental Petroleum – Oxy Falcons, Dolphin Energy Ltd – Turquoise, Occidental Petroleum – Oxymorons, Gulf Drilling International, Worley Parsons Warriors, Al Shaheen Weatherford, Gasal – The Great Gazelles, Philips, Supreme Council of Health – Doc’s Rise, Novo Nordisk, Media Team – The Invincibles, QDA – Action on Diabetes, and Diabetes Team – First Timers. Special mention must be made of how efficiently the event was organised by Red Rock International.
Despite all the inevitable panting and gasping that accompanies a rigorous competition, no-one seemed to be ready to back down. It was a fervently fought Challenge. Team positions after every stage fluctuated; some consolidating their places by staying in the zone, some drastically losing ground and some others making leaps of progress. What counted the most were smart strategising, quick thinking, and good running.
As the event coincided with International Diabetes Day, at one point, all the teams wore blue tees sporting the Action on Diabetes logo and stood together to create a giant blue circle – the international symbol for “Unite for diabetes” – to mark World Diabetes Day 2015 on November 14, as a drone camera snapped up some cool pictures from above.
As for the key player of the initiative, Action on Diabetes – initiated and funded by Maersk Oil Qatar – is a public-private partnership with the Supreme Council of Health, Hamad Medical Corporation, Primary Healthcare Corporation, Qatar Diabetes Association and the world leader in Diabetes care Novo Nordisk. Over the past four years, Action on Diabetes has screened 32,000 people for the condition.
Through its social investment programme Action for Qatar, the organisation backs a range of initiatives and programmes that are aligned with and support the Qatar National Vision 2030. These include health programmes to address key public health and social welfare challenges such as diabetes, road safety and promoting healthy lifestyles; contributing to education, local skills and capacity creation in support of diversification and a knowledge-based economy; and protecting and promoting Qatar’s natural environment, with a focus on the offshore marine ecosystem.
As the high-octane MOQP Challenge came to a close, Lewis Affleck, Managing Director of Maersk Oil Qatar, said, “We are delighted to celebrate another year of progress and a busy weekend of activities that raise awareness of World Diabetes Day and contribute to tackling one of the biggest health challenges facing the country today.”
Herluf Nis Thomsen, Action on Diabetes, Program Manager, said, “We are thrilled with the great success of the MOQP Challenge. I would like to thank our strategic partners for all their support in making the event happen.” Thomsen pointed out that Type 2 diabetes is preventable and their aim through activities such as this is to provide as many people as possible with the knowledge and understanding of the importance of eating well, moving more, quitting smoking and getting screened.
Last year’s MOQP Challenge saw more than 200 people, split into 30 teams from some of Qatar’s largest organisations compete over two eventful days at Fuwairit. Schlumberger’s The Blue Expendables team had won the Challenge then. Witnessing such unwavering intensity of the teams for four straight years, when the MOQP Challenge returns next year for its fifth edition, one can be certain of at least this – the fight would be faster and even more furious.