Lamia wins gold in Greece
dubai — The UAE’s Lamia Tariq Malallah claimed the gold medal at the 5th Armonia Cup 2018 Rhythmic Gymnastics competition in Thessaloniki, Greece over the weekend.
Lamia scored the highest in her category with a total score of 10.200 with difficulty rating of 3.400 and execution rating of 6.800 with no deductions making it a perfect execution and nearly three points more than her Greek competitor Anastasia Samartzi who took second place with a total score of 7.750 and Athima Politi from Cyprus who was placed third with a score of 7.500.
Over 400 participants representing Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Russia and the UAE came together over the weekend to compete in the Armonia Cup.
Lamia, representing the UAE through Dubai Youth Olympic School, alongwith her coaches Ksenia Dzhalaganiya, Polina Averina and Natalia Toprak and four other team mates Carla Bracke, Elissar Hanounik, Isabel Ahmed and Kira Kapralova competed in their age group categories.
The competition was tough as the Greek competitors were the more popular choice among the audience and judges alike. But ever since Lamia’s last competition during National Day in Germany in 2017, she had been training more intensively with more personalised training methods designed by her coach Ksenia. Lamia had to also miss two of her CAT exams to be able to travel earlier to get familiar with the carpet and environment and her school Choueifat where she studies in Grade 1 was supportive of her.
The UAE Embassy in Greece were made aware of the only Emirati to ever compete in Greece and it sent a consulate member to assist Lamia and her team with any issues regarding the competition.
Her coach Ksenia has the aim for Lamia to compete in Youth Olympics in eight years as Lamia would be eligible to compete then but a federation needs to be formed at the earliest so that talented children like Lamia are being supported in international competitions.
Lamia has been also enlisted for a two-week camp with the famous world champion Evgenia Kaneva in Nice, France, this summer to train in more techniques and improve her apparatus skills as she has to slowly incoporate apparatus usage into her routines during competitions.