Dubai: Girls from the UAE put up a splendid show in the annual Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) National Athletic meet in India.
Out of the 11 athletes who participated in the event, 10 of them returned with medals.
"It is a proud moment for us. We should continue to display excellent standard and improve further in future," said Indu Singh, the physical education teacher of the Our Own English High School, Dubai, who went as the coach of the Gulf CBSE zonal athletics team. The girls who won medals are Farida Iqbal, Rubina D'Souza, Ann Castelino and Sweta Bisht in 4x100metre relay in the under-19 category.
In the under-16 event, Deborah Ann finished second in the high jump event to bag the silver medal.
Jessica Jacob finished fifth in the under-16 high jump too.
In the under-14 4x100metre relay the girls from the gulf finished second to bag the silver medal.
The star performers were Jejy Achenkunju, Andrea Jesudasan, Nagama Siddique and Saima Khan.
Shirin Lateef, too, finished third in the discus throw event to win the bronze medal.
Laudable show
Elaborating on the performance of the girls from his region, Indu said: "Our performance is really laudable because nearly 700 schools participated in the event. We represented the Gulf zone and had to compete against the four zonal participants in India. The whole of India was divided into east, west, north and south."
According to Indu, the standard at this athletics meet was very high.
"The competition was very tough but my girls came out with flying colours through their determination. We have proved that we can compete against the best and also win.
"We should now look forward to lift our standard further," said Indu, who organises the Our Own English High School girls inter-school athletics meet in Dubai.
Last month nearly 700 girls took part in this annual inter school athletic meet at the Dubai Police Stadium.
