Dubai: The UAE will be looking at least at a handful of medals as the various squads enter the final phase of preparations for next month’s Fifth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games to be held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Earlier last week, the UAE National Olympic Committee (UAE NOC) cleared the participation of an 80-member contingent, including 55 athletes, for the fifth edition of the Games to be held from September 17-27.
Though a total of 21 sports will be represented, including the five Olympic disciplines of cycling, equestrian, taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling, the UAE will be sending athletes in just seven disciplines, namely athletics, billiards, bowling, cycling, chess, jiu-jitsu and futsal.
“Athletes from the UAE have a lot of respect for their performances at the Asian level. We have deliberately selected those sports where we stand a serious chance of making an impact and bringing home some medals,” Mohammad Bin Darwish, Executive Director, UAE NOC observed after the squads had been endorsed.
“We have some seasoned campaigners on the one hand, and some promising youngsters who need the experience to make it to the next level in their careers. And this time we have ensured we have a mix of these two factors in the UAE squad,” he added.
The track and field charge will be led by seasoned Alia Saeed Mohammad in the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres, while Saoud Al Za’abi and Mayouf Hassan will both participate in the 800 metres for men.
Alia seems to be primed for a double medal following her recent silver in the 5,000m at the Asian Games in India in the first week of July followed by two gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m at the Arab Athletics Championships held in Tunisia later last month. After that, the 26-year-old athlete abstained participate at the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London, but continued preparations for the Asian Indoor Games.
The Jiu-Jitsu squad is another avenue that the country can look forward to for some medals, especially after the squad returned with 21 medals, including ten gold from the Second Asian Jiu-Jitsu Championships held in Hanoi, Vietnam earlier this month. Further, at last October’s Asian Beach Games in Danang, Vietnam the UAE had ended with nine medals.
“I don’t see any reason why we should be lowering our ambitions going into one of the most important competitions of this year. If the team has the capacity of winning nine medals and now more than doubling that effort, then we can safely expect them to do much better in Ashgabat,” Yousuf Al Beloushi, Technical Director at UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation (UAE JJF) told Gulf News.
“We will continue setting goals before the athletes so that they reach the desired levels in the long run,” he added.
With Yousuf Mirza leading the five cyclists, the UAE can hope for some more silverware. By far the most experienced cyclist, Mirza became the first Emirati to ride for a UCI WorldTeam after being signed on by the UAE Abu Dhabi Team for 2017.
THE SQUADS
Athletics: 3
Billiards: 5
Bowling: 4
Cycling: 5
Chess: 8 — 4 men and 4 women
Jiu-Jitsu: 16: 13 men and 3 women
Futsal: 14
