When UAE sporting titans made headlines

dubai — As the UAE gets ready to celebrate the 2nd National Sports Day, it would be a great exercise to look back at a highlights reel of the gamut of achievements by the country, in sport, in the year gone by.

Football is one the UAE favourite sports with a massive following and the national team has done well over the years. The year saw the richly-talented Omar Abdulrahman scoop up the AFC Player of the Award, after his exploits for both club and country. It was backto-back AFC Player of the Year awards for the UAE as Ahmed Khalil had won the accolade a year earlier. Omar impressed by guiding the UAE to third in the AFC Asian Cup in Australia in January. The Emirati, who had four assists, was also named in the Team of the Tournament.

Omar, who plies his trade for Al Ain the Arabian Gulf League, helped the Garden City club to the AFC Champions League final. He played 14 games and scored three and had six assists.

The talisman has so far made 12 appearances for the UAE in World Cup qualification for Russia 2018, scoring three and has nine assists.

Meanwhile, Omar’s UAE teammate Ali Ahmed Mabkhout won the Golden Boot at the AFC Asian Cup after the Al Jazira frontman plundered five goals in the competition. He also scored the fastest goal in the tournament — in 14 seconds in the group fixture against Bahrain. The year also saw Al Ain reach a third AFC Champions League final in 11 appearances in the competition. The Boss, who were the inaugural winners in 2003, went down to South Korea’s Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, in the title tilt.

Meanwhile, five-year-old Lamia Tariq Malallah shone by clinching top honours in the inaugural Dubai International Junior Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships, from among a field that included 220 gymnasts from Europe and GCC countries.

Elsewhere, at the Olympics in Rio, 18-year-old swimmer Nada Al Bedwawi was the flag bearer for the UAE. And Sergiu Toma made the country proud by winning the bronze in judo.

Toma defeated Italy’s Matteo Marconcini by Ippon in the -81kg weight class to become only the second Emirati to win a medal at an Olympics.

Meanwhile, the country’s Paralympians were on song, winning seven medals in Rio. And it was a massive improvement on the four medals that they had won at the 2004 Athens Olympics. The UAE squad consisted of 18 members and Noura Al Ketbi and Sara Al Senaani became the first Emirati women to win medals. Noura won the silver, while Sara took the bronze in the shot put event.

Shooter Abdullah Sultan Al Aryani won three silver medals in various categories, while veteran Mohammed Khamis Khalaf won the UAE’s second gold at the Paralympics.

Khalaf won the medal in powerlifting to add to his collection of gold at the 2004 Games and silver at the 2008 Games in Beijing.