Dubai: The Dubai Educational Zone (DEZ) team consolidated its position at the top of the medal standings with a successful second day of the second UAE School Olympic Games on Friday.
After claiming 13 medals on opening day, the DEZ added a further 24 to swell their tally to 37 with one day remaining of the three-day meeting, which is being held at the Dubai Police Officers Club and Al Wasl Club.
The girl athletes from Dubai schools backed up an impressive performance from the sub-junior boys the previous day as they ended day two with nine golds, eight silvers and seven bronze medals in the swimming, archery, gymnastics and shooting competitions.
After finishing seventh in the overall standings last year, Dubai has been impressive this time, dominating on both days so far to assure themselves of overall glory.
Sharjah were second with eight golds, four silvers and four bronze medals for a total of 16, while Ajman were third with a total of ten medals, made up of four golds, three silvers and three bronzes.
Ahmad Abdul Rahman, Head of Health and Physical Education at DEZ, was thrilled with the performance, especially after Dubai had finished a distant seventh in last year’s inaugural edition.
“Last year was a wake-up call for us. We always thought we were the best, but we experienced the feeling of losing. We did not want to make the same mistakes this year and so we invested in equipment and a proper coaching structure, while paying a lot of attention to selection of athletes to ensure we claim our rightful position at the top,” he told Gulf News.
“We learnt from our experience and the success can be seen this year. We put in a lot of hard work and we can be happy we have these achievements this season.”
