Doha: The UAE won a gold and a bronze medal in the men's sailing competitions at the 12th Arab Games here yesterday as Hamoud Al Zaidi and Suhail Al Ghailani finished first and third respectively in the optimist class after the 12 races in the category.
Al Zaidi registered 13 net points, followed by Dhiaed Chaabane from Tunisia with 32 and Al Ghailani with 35.
But, despite the achievement, Abdullah Al Obaidly, the manager of the team, hit out at the lack of funding from the UAE NOC as they tried to prepare the team to win more medals than they did in the last Arab Games in Cairo 2007, where they won two golds and a silver.
"I would like to thank the General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare and the Emirates Heritage Club, who supported us and helped us to win these medals." Al Obaidly said.
Depleted squad
"All these players are from the Emirates Heritage Club, who are our main supporter, and if it wasn't for their help this team would not have taken part in the Games.
"We are not happy that we won less medals than what we did four years ago but most of our members did not come because of work or study obligations. We have three good members who work as pilots with Etihad Airways who could not come and take part — Saeed Al Zaidi, Abdul Aziz Al Obaidly and Taher Mohammad — they were with us in Cairo in the last Games.
"I am happy for the team members because they worked hard to win these medals for their country and I hope that they will better prepared for their next competition because they can really achieve brilliant results."
Meanwhile, the UAE took a silver medal in the men's team kata after losing in the final to Egypt. The UAE was represented by Marwan Al Ma'azmi (who won the individual gold medal on Monday), Humaid Al Zarouni and Hamad Al Najjar.
