Dubai: The UAE’s lone medallist at the sixth Children of Asia International Sports Games is confident he can build on his success in the future.
Ahmad Abdullah Al Hosani delivered the UAE’s only medal when he bagged a bronze in the boy’s 63kg on the final day of the taekwondo competition at the games, which will conclude with a ceremony on July 16.
Al Hosani, who is a regular with the taekwondo squad of Sharjah Club, defeated Mohammad Buchari of Indonesia in the bronze medal fight on Wednesday.
Moments later, he told Gulf News that he could have done even better had he paid more attention to his training schedule during the build-up to the games, especially during Ramadan.
“It was one tough month for me as it seriously hampered my training schedule. But in the end we had to just hang in there, stick to the schedule and give it our best shot. In case the games were held at any other time then I had a lovely chance to go for the gold medal,” Al Hosani said.
“Initially, it was tough to be in a competition mode. But, after I won my first bout, I gained confidence that I was able to carry forward into the next two rounds. I realised that one of the main things I missed in a way was a lack of specialised training coming into such an important competition,” he added. “For me personally, this competition has given me a taste of success and I know I can build on this success and bring glory to the UAE in the future,” Al Hosani stressed.
Abdullah Hatem, who doubled up as Sharjah Club and UAE national coach, also offered that Al Hosani would have been a genuine contender for the gold medal. “At first we wanted to have an external training camp, but that fell through. And yet he [Al Hosani] showed a lot of enthusiasm in attending training sessions regularly at the club as he was hungry for success,” Hatem said.
The UAE squad to Yakutsk consisted of 105 people, including 82 athletes from the UAE School Olympic Games, participating in six disciplines including table tennis, shooting, taekwondo, archery, swimming and athletics.
The UAE National Olympic Committee (NOC) had sent its athletes to prepare them for the inaugural GCC Youth Games to be held in September, the 2017 Asian Youth Games in Indonesia and the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Argentina.
Held once every four years since 1996 under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee, the games were organised on the initiative of the first President of the Sakha Republic of Yakutia, Mikhail Nikolayev, to commemorate the Centennial of the modern Olympic Games.