UAE’s elite para athletes seek more medals on home soil
Emirati Paralympic medallists Mohammed Qaid, Noura Al Ketbi and Sara Al Senaani lead the host nation’s medal drive when Dubai hosts the World Para Athletics Championships next month.
Al Qaid won silver and bronze in the wheelchair at the London Paralympic 2012 Games and he followed it up with gold at Rio 2016.
Al Ketbi and Al Senaani created history by becoming the first Emirati females to win medals at a Paralympic Games.
They won a silver and a bronze in the Shot Putt F32 and F33, respectively, at Rio 2016.
“We have 18 para athletes entered in the world championships and include three previous Paralympic medal winners Qaid, Noura and Sara,” said Majid Al Osaimi, the event director, at the launch ceremony at the Dubai Sports Council yesterday.
“This is a world championship and it is difficult to get the qualification numbers but to have 18 athletes is a very good number. And what is even better is that half of them are females.”
Al Osaimi, who is also the president of Asia Paralympic Committee, said that the Fazza Championship, initiated by 11 years ago by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, the Crown Prince of Dubai, has been key to the success.
“We are harvesting the fruits of the Fazza Championship, which is one of the main annual grand prix events for para athletes,” he said.
“We expect 8-10 of our athletes to qualify from the world championships and obviously looking forward to the next summer’s Games to have more of our athletes on the podium.”
The world championships in Dubai has already drawn over 1,500 entries from 123 countries and Thani Juma Bel Ragad, chairman of the Local Organising Committee, expects two more nations to join when entries close tomorrow.
“There is a flood of entries because 1,100 qualifying spots in 172 categories in the track-and-field events are up for grabs for the Tokyo Games,” Bel Ragab said.
“The United Nations comes as the main sponsor, another first in the event and Russia are returning for the first time since their ban on 2016.
The championships will be held in three venues – Dubai Club, Al Wasl and the Dubai Police Officers Club.
“We want to create an awareness of the para athletic program to our youth during the championships,” Bel Ragad said. “With that in mind, we have made extra seating arrangements for school children plus more than 4,000 overseas visitors like families, friends and fans of the para athletes.”