Dubai: The UAE celebrated ‘Happiness Day’ with a seven-medal harvest as the ninth Fazza World Para-Athletics Championship Dubai 2017 opened at the newly-built Dubai Club for the Disabled stadium on Monday.
Held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Sports Council (DSC), the season-opening World Para-Athletics Dubai Grand Prix has attracted 386 athletes from 41 countries.
Three world records were broken on the first day, even as the UAE won three gold medals through Mohammad Al Ka’abi, Paralympic hero Mohammad Al Hammadi and Mohammad Vahdani along with three silver medals and a bronze.
Abdullah Hayayei was the first on the podium for the hosts when he stood second in the Javelin Wheelchair Men’s Final F34/37 category with his first throw of 26.31 metres. Pavel Sidorchuk of Kazakhstan (30.58m) won the gold and Greece’s Konstantinos Passas (18.33m) took bronze.
Al Ka’abi claimed the UAE’s first gold medal with a throw of 37.03mts in the men’s discus F35/36/38 category. “This win has boosted my confidence of qualifying for the World Championship in London. My greatest ambition remains to participate in the Tokyo 2020 Games and compete for an Olympic medal,” said the 21-year-old after earning 797 (F36) ranking points for his effort.
Azerbaijan’s Rufat Rafiyev (32.02m) settled for silver, while Czech Republic’s Petr Vratil (33.47m) took bronze.
Al Hammadi clinched the UAE’s second gold medal when he cruised to victory in the men’s 800m T33/34/53 race. The Paralympic champion clocked 1:45.9 minutes to ease past Kuwait’s Hamad Al Adwani (1:46.7) and Japan’s Hitoshi Matsunaga (1:47.3).
British racer
Craig Boardman turned the tables on the UAE star winning the men’s 200m T34 gold as the British athlete finished with a time of 27.84 secs ahead of Al Hammadi’s 28.48 secs. “This is the first championship in the Grand Prix series and there is always room to continue working and improving my timings in different races,” said Al Hammadi.
Al Vahdani clinched the UAE’s third gold medal when he clocked the fastest time of 25.40 secs in the men’s 200m T54 wheelchair race getting the better of a stellar field including Swiss legend Marcel Hug (25.73). “I tried to record my best time. My focus was entirely on the finish line. The tournament is held in our country and always winning in the UAE has a different and special feeling,” said Al Vahdani.
The UAE’s two other medals came in the javelin wheelchair women final F33/34 where Algeria’s Paralympic shot-put champion Asmahan Boudjadar set a new javelin F33 world record of 12.82 metres, improving on her previous mark set in Dubai 12 months ago by 83cms with her final throw of the day. Aishah Salem Bani Khaled (F33) clinched silver for the UAE with a throw of 9.39m, while the experienced Emirati athlete Thuraya Al Za’abi (F34) took bronze with a throw of 11.03mts.