Dubai: The UAE's Badr Mirza clinched the first place in the Mohammad Bin Rashid International Cycling Cup, a gruelling 123km test, held at Al Mamzar park on Saturday.
Mirza crossed the finish line in a time of 3hrs 04.28minutes. He received a gold medal and Dh15,000 prize money.
"It was not an easy race. I am very pleased to win the gold medal of Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Cup which is a great honour for me," Badr Mirza told Gulf News after he received the gold medal.
Mirza who is 24 years old, is a member of Al Ahli club in Dubai. He said that he trained five hours daily.
"Hard work and daily training helped me to clinch the gold medal. I hope I can keep up the good performance and improve to win medals at the Asian and Olympic level," said Mirza.
Good race
Libyan Ali Ahmad finished second, also in the same time clocked by Mirza. He won the silver medal and Dh10,000. Adil Jaloul of Morocco finished third in 3hrs 05.30minutes to win the bronze medal and Dh5,000.
Morocco won the team event with 14 points. They were represented by Raqraqi Mohammad, Oyouni Esmail, Lahssaini Muhsin, Adil Jaloul and Rahily Muhsin.
UAE, represented by Badr Mirza, Yousuf Mirza, Humaid Mehrab, Mohammad Al Marwi, Khalid Ali Thani and Badr Ali Thani, finished second with 16 points.
Radek Valenta, the UAE team coach, expressed his satisfaction with the excellent result achieved by Mirza and his teammates.
"It was a good race and the weather helped the racers to perform well. It is a good start for me with the UAE team. I began work just one month ago. Also, it could be a good preparation for the GCC championships to be held next month," said Valenta.
Libya finished third in the team event with a total of 26 points.
A total of 70 cyclists from 12 countries participated in the race held over 30 rounds at Al Mamzar park. Each round was a distance of 4.1km.
The cyclists came from Bahrain, Morocco, Libya, Germany, Syria, Tunisia, Slovakia, South Korea, Azerbaijan, Greece and UAE.
Shaikh Faisal Bin Humaid Al Qasimi, UAE cycling association chairman, presented the winners with the trophies and medals.
Results
Individual 123 km road race:
1- Badr Mohammad Mirza (UAE)
2- Ali Ahmad Mohammad (Libya)
3- Adil Jaloul (Morocco)
Team event:
1- Morocco
2- UAE
3- Libya
