UAE in search of Ashgabat 2017 medals

The UAE will be looking to bag a handful of medals after finalizing one of their strongest squads for 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, which get underway in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on Sunday and run until 27 September.

The UAE National Olympic Committee (UAE NOC) has cleared the participation of an 80-member contingent, including 55 athletes, for the Games.

Though a total of 21 sports are being represented in Turkmenistan - including the five Olympic disciplines of Cycling, Equestrian, Taekwondo, Weightlifting and Wrestling - the UAE is sending athletes in just seven disciplines, namely Athletics, Billiards, Bowling, Cycling, Chess, Ju Jitsu and Futsal.

“Athletes from the UAE have a lot of respect [from others] 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,” said Mohammed Bin Darwish, Executive Director of the UAE National Olympic Committee.

“We have some seasoned campaigners as well as some promising youngsters who need the experience to make it to the next level in their careers. It is nice to have a mix of these two factors in the UAE squad.”

The track and field charge will be led by experienced Asian champion Alia Saeed Mohammed in the 3000 metres, while Saoud Al Za’abi and Mayouf Hassan will both be in the 800 metres line-up for men.

Alia clearly made herself as one of the medal hopefuls with a silver at the Asian Games 5000m in Bhubaneshwar, India in July. This was followed by two gold medals in the 5000m and 10,000m at the Arab Athletics Championships held in Tunisia.

However, after that the 26-year-old athlete was forced to stay away from the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London due to a recurring ankle injury.

“She is in much better shape now and we expect her to hit true form by the time we are in Ashgabat,” Ahmed Al Kamali, President of UAE Athletics Federation confirmed.

The Jiu-Jitsu squad is another avenue that the country can look to for medals, especially after the team returned with 21 medals, including 10 gold, from the Second Asian Ju Jitsu Championships held in Hanoi, Vietnam in August. Also, at last October’s Asian Beach Games in Danang, Vietnam, the UAE finished 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 in Danang, and now more than doubling our effort for Ashgabat 2017, then we can safely expect them to do much better at these Games,” said Yousuf Al Beloushi, Technical Director at UAE Ju Jitsu Federation.

“We will continue setting goals for 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 UAE SQUAD
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
Total: 55