Dubai: Abu Dhabi lead the medals table with Dubai and Sharjah in close pursuit at the end of the opening day of the Fourth UAE School Olympic Games being held in the capital.
Athletes from the Abu Dhabi zone dominated in the swimming, archery and judo competitions at various venues in the capital on the first day of the three-day meet on Thursday.
The judokas from Abu Dhabi claimed seven of the eight gold medals on offer with the eighth medal going to Rashid Mohammad from Al Ain. The swimmers from the Abu Dhabi region were also at their best - winning four gold, two silver and a bronze for a total of seven medals, while Dubai played catch-up with two gold, two silver and two bronze medals and Sharjah third with a gold, a silver and a bronze.
Marksmen from Abu Dhabi claimed three of the four gold medals on offer - Ahmad Juma leading the way in the under-12 category with gold with a score of 428 points. Maryam Hisham, teammate in the girls under-12 category, had a score of 498 as she took the gold medal while also helping the girls’ squad take the team gold with a total of 1,434 points. Sharjah denied Abu Dhabi a clean sweep as the boys team won gold in the under-12 category.
In the judo competition, Rashid Mohammad from Al Ain denied Abu Dhabi a clean sweep as he claimed the gold in the 30kg category. However, judokas Zayed Faisal, Ahmad Jasim, Mohammad Abdullah, Rashid Mohammad, Abdullah Adil, Eisa Ali and Hazza Abdullah, all representing the Abu Dhabi zone, were comfortable winners in the 34kg, 38kg, 42kg, 46kg, 50kg, 55kg and 60kg categories, respectively.
Honours in the swimming competition were also reserved for Abu Dhabi as they claimed four gold, two silver and a bronze. Nasser Mohammad claimed the gold in the 25m backstroke for boys under-10 in a time of 23.26 secs, while Salman Ahmad, also from Abu Dhabi, won the top spot in the 25m backstroke for boys under-12.
Abu Dhabi’s Mansour Ahmad won gold in the 25m breaststroke for boys under-10 in a time of 22.06 seconds, and the boys under-12 quartet representing Abu Dhabi won the gold in the 4x25m relay in a time of 1:06.06 minutes.
In taekwondo, it was Sharjah leading the way with five medals including two gold and a silver, while Dubai had two gold, a silver and a bronze and Ajman were in third with a gold, a couple of silvers and three bronze medals.
The three earlier editions of the UAE School Olympic Games have witnessed different champions. Sharjah displaced Dubai on the overall winner’s podium last year, while Fujairah were crowned champions in the inaugural year of 2013.
“It is heartening to see the Abu Dhabi zone faring so well in the medals tally,” Hussain Ebrahim Al Hammadi, UAE Minister of Education, said after presenting various winners with medals at the end of the first day.
“We have an agenda and much of it revolves round the fact that we want to have a group of high-level athletes who will bring honour to the UAE starting from the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games,” he added.
STANDINGS
Abu Dhabi 14 6 4 24
Dubai 4 3 6 13
Sharjah 3 3 8 14
Al Ain 1 7 9 17
Eastern Region 1 1 2 4
Fujairah 1 2 3 6
Ajman 1 2 3 6
Western Region 0 1 1 2
Ras Al Khaimah 0 0 2 2
