Dubai: The UAE athletes are eyeing medals at the Asian Games to be held in Indonesia next year and have a blueprint in place, according to Said Aouita, the legendary middle distance runner and now national coach. Five promising athletes have been identified for intense coaching leading up to the Games.
The UAEFA General Secretary Saleh Mohammad Hassan also signed a three-year sponsorship deal with Plan B Group. Harmeek Singh, the founder and chairman, Plan B Group and Strategic Counsel of UAEAF and Saleh Mohammad Hassan signed the deal at the General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare office.
Speaking to Gulf News, Ahmad Al Kamali, the president of the UAEAF said: “Plan B have sponsored our team dress for three years from now to 2020. This is part of the local community coming out to support the federation as alone we cannot do much. Our future looks good. We have the best of coaches taking care of the athletes and we are supporting them.”
Aouita is hoping that the UAE can win at least four medals in the continental showpiece, scheduled to be held from August 18 to September 2, 2018. “I have some athletes in 800 metres, who have been able to clip off 11 seconds from their starting time. These athletes who have basic speed as they were runners in 400m too. This year, what I have done is to increase their endurance and stamina and that has helped them better their timings.”
“We have Saud Al Zaabi and Mayouf Hassan in 800m. I am also trying to make Saud and Mayouf to run the 1500m also,” said Aouita, who is delighted with the improvement so far.
When asked what more is needed to do well at the international events, Aouita said: “We need to continue the same way we have started. We will be coaching the athletes professionally. We could not go full steam this year because they had not reached the power to do that kind of workouts. Now they have gained it and so we plan to push them hard in training.”
Aoutia revealed that the athletes will race in the US and also train in India. “We have so many races in the US and so we will go there as the season gets over here early from March. After April all the competition are in Europe and hence we may visit there too. We will also train in India as the conditions there are similar to Indonesia. We will also try and reach Indonesia early to get acclimatised,” said Aouita, who was accompanied by the athletes.
