Dubai: One of the top officials from the UAE Paralympics Committee has called for more support for special needs sports in the country following the success of its athletes at the 2012 London Paralympic Games.
Sultan Abdullah Al Aryani became only the second UAE athlete to win Paralympic gold when he clinched top spot in the Mixed R6-50m Rifle Prone-SH1 shooting competition on Tuesday. His achievement was soon followed by Mohammad Hammadi winning silver in the men’s T34 200m at the London Olympic Stadium the same night.
“We always expected our athletes to bring home the medals and make the UAE proud. What we now need is support from society at the community level so that our athletes can be inspired to do much better in the future,” Thani Juma Berregad, Vice-Chairman of the UAE Paralympics Committee and Chairman of the Dubai Club for Special Sports, told Gulf News yesterday.
“With a bare minimum budget we have managed to achieve such big results for the UAE. Just imagine if we were to get more support — our athletes could have done much better in the medals table,” he said.
“We are overjoyed with the medals as this means a reward for all the hard work put in by our leaders, the officials and the coaching staff.
“But we still feel we need much more support at the community level, where we want people from different walks of life within our society to step forward and be involved in the Paralympic movement in the UAE.”
The UAE made its debut at the Paralympic Games in 1992 in Barcelona and in the six Paralympic Games they have participated in so far, the country has won a total of 14 medals.
Prior to the London Games, Mohammad Khamis Khalaf was the nation’s lone gold medallist following his victory in the men’s powerlifting in Athens in 2004.
