Dubai: Badminton joined a select group of sports when it made a successful debut at the finals of the fifth UAE School Olympics last week, with 173 players (89 boys and 84 girls) contesting for Under-11s, U13s and U15s categories.
Last year, it was announced that badminton would be the first racquet sport to be included in the School Olympics, joining athletics, swimming, judo, taekwondo, fencing, archery, shooting, and jiu-jitsu.
Following the announcement, Shuttle Time Dubai, which has been operating in Dubai for three years, extended its Dubai-based programmes and worked with the National Olympic Committee and Ministry of Education to support the establishment of 18 Badminton School Olympic Training Centres across the UAE.
In Dubai, the National Training Centres established in 2015 received additional support from the National Olympic Committee and Ministry of Education to serve as the Olympic Training Centres. The Centres saw an estimated 500 players training three times per week.
To support the introduction of the Training Centres in other emirates, Shuttle Time Dubai conducted teaching courses in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Ras Al Khaimah and Ajman to equip teachers with skills to train children. In addition, Shuttle Time Dubai also donated 500 racquets, 400 shuttlecocks and 25 portable nets to the Badminton School Olympic Training Centres.
The extensive preparation across the UAE paid off last week, with an exciting competition.
In the boy’s categories, Sharjah’s Hamed Saeed Mohammad won the U11s, Dubai’s Rashid Abdullah Hassan won the U13s and Dubai’s Saeed Omar Mohammad won the U15s. meanwhile, in the girl’s categories Ayah Mohammad Abdullah won the U11s, Shaikha Saeed Rashid won the U13s and Roudha Saeed Rashid won the U15s, all were from Dubai.
The Shuttle Time Dubai grassroots development programme, which aims to increase participation in badminton, is being implemented in Dubai through a range of programmes and activities including teacher training and coaching development; the establishment of National Training Centres, and the organisation of Schools and Club Championships.
Shuttle Time Dubai is part of Dubai’s four-year, multi-platform partnership with the Badminton World Federation (BWF), facilitated by Falcon and Associates, the pinnacle of which is the staging of the annual Dubai World Superseries Finals, which will be held in the city each year until 2017.
