Dubai: UAE gymnast Lamia Tariq Al Farsi missed out on her annual examinations but made suitable amends while adding another accolade with a gold medal at the fifth Armonia Cup that concluded in Thessaloniki, Greece, on Sunday.
The seven-year-old student from The International School of Choueifat Dubai missed out on two of her CAT (Common Admission Test) exams, but powered her way to the gold medal in the Greek port city on the Aegean Sea.
Al Farsi finished her routine with a total score of 10.200 with a difficult level of 3.400 and execution of 6.800 to leave Greek girl Anastasia Samartzi in second with a total of 7.750 and Althima Politi of Cyprus in third with a total of 6.800 in front of an appreciative audience.
Organised by the Athletic Association of Armonia to encourage gymnastic stars of the future, the annual event was held under the auspices of the Hellenic Gymnastics Federation and the Municipality of Delta from March 22-25 attracted more than 400 athletes from across the region including Bulgaria and Russia.
“Lamia had to miss two of her exams as we wanted her to go early and have a feel of conditions in Greece. Besides that, training conditions were not the best as organisers were setting up the venue and we had to go through the routines in cold conditions,” mum Malak told Gulf News from Thessaloniki.
“But she was focused and displayed a perfect execution of all elements with no deductions from the score,” she complimented.
After her debut gold at the First Emirates Cup for Rhythmic Gymnastics where she scored an identical 10.200 and top Category ‘C’ in May last year, the Dubai Youth Olympic School Rhythmic Gym athlete went on to win the top spot at the 2017 Open GR Azur International Rhythmic Gymnastics held in Nice, France. Since then, the seven-year-old who is trained by former Olympic champion Ksenia Dzalaghaniya, has been showing steady improvement in her skills.
“She’s had more personal coaching methods and intensive routines added to her regimen. She is aware that the difficulty level of her regimen has to keep on increasing if she wants to get higher scores. She has been training hard since December on her new set of routines and all the hard work has paid off,” Malak noted.
With yet another addition to her laurels, Lamia still has the 2022 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) as her real target. “My aim is a gold medal at YOG 2022,” Lamia said.
“I have been working hard and I will continue with my work. The medals and accomplishments will come along the way. But I will keep my final goal in sight always,” she added. The UAE gymnast and her team are scheduled to return to Dubai on March 28.
