Dubai: Rachel Guest of Jumeirah College was the standout athlete in the girls’ under-16 qualifiers at the CBD Youth Athletics Competition 2015 held at the Dubai Police Officers Club earlier this week.
Guest won the 400 metres and 800 metres heats to lead the qualifiers into the final round of the competition to be held early next year.
The Jumeirah College student clocked a time of 1 minute, 09.05 seconds in the 400 metres run and then finished the 800 metres in a time of 2:57.88 to earn her qualification to the finals.
Joining Guest on the final day in January will be the 4x100 metres relay quartet from Jumeirah College and Kayla Cokaya who went on to record the best time of 13.32 seconds to win the 100 metres for under-16 girls.
Defending champions Our Own High School Dubai also came up with a few good results led by Aarya Sivakumar’s 13.55 seconds in the 100 metres heats. And the Our Own relay team will be worthy challengers to the Jumeirah College after they clocked a best time of 56.08 seconds for a showdown between the two institutions in January.
As per the rules of the competition, the qualifiers will advance for a final round in January to vie for a total cash prize of nearly Dhs500,000. Individual performers will get cash awards depending on their placings, while the educational institutions also stand to win from the fund depending on the collective results of the students.
Held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman, Dubai Sports Council (DSC), the CBD Youth Athletics Competition’s vision is to create, foster and develop an interschool contest while also bringing together local communities.
Organised by the Dubai Sports Council (DSC), the fourth edition of this annual competition is expected to have participation from more than 2,000 students from over 85 schools in Dubai competing in six age categories.
The preliminary qualifying rounds for the boys were held on November 17 and 18 and the girls qualifying concluded earlier this week. The grand finals for both boys and girls have been scheduled for January 24.
This competition that has been growing since it was first launched in 2011. Last year’s competition attracted more than 1,800 athletes from 82 schools from across Dubai.
