Dubai: Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, was presented with the UAE Sports Personality of the Year Award at the third annual Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Awards at Jumeirah Beach Hotel yesterday.
Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council and patron of the award, handed Shaikh Mansour the accolade in appreciation for his efforts and successes as owner of Manchester City and Al Jazira Football Clubs.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, witnessed the prize-giving, along with Shaikh Ahmad Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Awards and President of the National Olympic Committee.
Arab personality of the year award went to Shaikh Eisa Bin Rashid Al Khalifa, Vice-President of the Supreme Council of Youth and Sports in Bahrain since 1999.
Meanwhile, Arab team of the year award went to the Libyan national football team for their qualification to the 2012 African Cup of Nations in the face of adversity. The Egyptian youth handball team was also honoured for their gold medal at the Youth Olympics.
The UAE Olympic football team won the local team of the year category for winning the silver at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. Egypt's Ebrahim Sabri, a gold medalist in archery at the Youth Olympics, won the best Arab sportsman award.
Best sports persons
Meanwhile, the UAE's best sportsmen were chess player Salem Abdul Rahman Mohammad Saleh and jet-skier Nader Bin Hindi.
Best Arab sportswomen were Tunisian tennis player Ons Jabeur, winner of last year's Junior French Open, and Saudi equestrian rider Dalma Rushdi Hisham Malhas, who won bronze at the Youth Olympics.
Best Arab institutions were the Jordanian Taekwondo Federation and Bahrain National Olympic Committee, while the UAE Karate and Taekwondo Federation and Sharjah's Al Thiqah Club won the local prizes.
Local and Arab-wide best official gongs went to 2011 world's best taekwondo referee Abu Bakr Kurdi of Saudi Arabia and UAE handball referees Mohammad Al Naimi and Omar Al Marzouqi. Mounira Murkas Mikhail of Egypt won the best female official for her role as vice-president of the supreme committee for the Women's National Council of Sport.
Abdullah Swaidan Said Bin Swaidan won the best coach category for his 48 medals accrued with the UAE cycling team.
The award for best para-athlete went to Mohammad Al Qaid for his three gold medals in athletics at the World Championships for the Disabled in New Zealand and, lastly, media awards were also bestowed upon the Sada Al Malaeb show and Al Bayan newspaper. The winning 22 were selected from 135 candidates from 16 Arab countries.
