Dubai: Shaikh Ahmad Hasher Al Maktoum, the UAE’s lone Olympic Games gold medallist, is set to launch an ‘independent project’ which will help the UAE bring home a medal from the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
“There is a big surprise coming later this week when I will make an announcement that will affect the way sport is run in the UAE. It will be a private project from Ahmad Bin Hasher and my target will be a medal at Tokyo 2020,” Shaikh Ahmad told Gulf News on the sidelines of the Balkan Athletics Awards Night held at Atlantis The Palm late on Saturday.
“This project will be a good competition between me and the local organisers and associations. Let us see who can achieve and bring in a medal in Tokyo,” he announced.
Shaikh Ahmad, who won the double trap shooting gold at the 2004 Athens Games, suggested that top officials involved in sports administration need to start thinking differently if the UAE is to have aspirations for more medals at the highest stage.
He was full of praise for Ahmad Al Kamali, President, UAE Athletics Federation and IAAF Council Member. “What Ahmad [Al Kamali] is doing is the right thing. And all officials in the UAE need to have a similar foresight and vision and look ahead of our times,” Shaikh Ahmad said.
“Our problem at the moment is that we think is the same traditional ways when it comes to sport. We need to take a fresh guard and look around to see how other countries treat sport and its development. In the UAE, we are fortunate and lucky to have an official like Ahmad [Al Kamali] who has shown so much vision and foresight in taking athletics to the next level here. He is the best example on how to achieve in sport and all the rest need to follow the path he is setting,” he added.
