Dubai: As the President of the UAE Cycling Association (UAECA) since 1993, Shaikh Faisal Bin Humaid Al Qasimi has been a relentless soldier for the cause of the sport not just in the UAE, but in the entire Gulf region.
And with the belief that the UAE is in a position to have medal winners at the highest level, Shaikh Faisal has managed to convince the authorities in the country to build the state-of-the-art Zayed Velodrome that was opened at the end of last year on the outskirts of Sharjah. It is time now, he feels, the UAE starts making its presence felt in the world of cycling:
Gulf News: How did you manage to stage such an important competition like the Asian Championship?
Shaikh Faisal: Bagging this event from the Asian Cycling Confederation (ACC) has been no mean feat, but we managed to convince the authorities and the numbers are there to see: we have a record 31 countries participating here this week.
How important is this competition?
This competition is going to be the starting point for many other exciting things. For me this is a new start for UAE cycling, and not just for the riders, but for the authorities here.
The UAE National Olympic Committee (UAENOC) and the General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare (GAYSW) will get a right indicator of the potential this sport holds for bringing glory to the UAE. There are limitless possibilities. A competition like this one will have 177 medals on offer, of which 128 will be in the road races.
How do you rate the chances for the UAE?
The Gulf Cycling Championships last month was a good preparation for all the teams from the Gulf region. All of them benefited from the experience of competing. Now our riders have some good experience in both road and track. So we won't be there to only make up the numbers, we will be fighting for the medals.
How many medals can we expect?
Honestly, I can't promise you any medals, but I do have the confidence that our riders will win something.
Who are the hopefuls?
There is 23-year-old Yousuf Mirza and I can see him having a good future, especially after being chosen by the UCI under their international development programme. Then we also have junior team member Ahmad Nayouf, Mohammad Murwwi and Badr Ali in the track competition. But they have to still fight to get a good place.
What about the women cyclists from the UAE?
In the first place we did not start on the right note. So now we need to reassess our entire strategy and planning. We need to start afresh in building a women's team.
This is not going to be easy especially in cycling as unlike sports like basketball or volleyball team, cycling is a very demanding sport. But we will start from zero and build a new women's cycling team for the UAE.
What does the future look like for cycling?
We have riders who are capable of winning Asian or even Olympic medals. We have riders with potential, but they need to realise that the road ahead if tough.
We have the plan on paper, but we need the other elements as well, and these include support via funds, release of the riders from their work place. There are far too many difficulties we encounter to get one rider released from his work place to attend a competition. There is a plan and there are people ready to support that plan.
Right now, we are working on the aspect of increasing the base of cycling. We want them to pursue this sport as a hobby as cycling means exercise.
We want them to come here and get their license from us. We have in our plan to build up a cycling academy so that riders can start from the right point.
What have been the challenges for you personally?
It's a long story. I started in 1993 and the early beginnings saw me fighting to make cycling a common sport here by increasing the number of people. The second most important thing for me was to get a track and a velodrome and we have managed this at last. Cycling is not just about road races. It's much more than that. Cycling should start from the track as this is where the riders get their knowledge and information on how to ride and control the bike.
If everything goes as per our plan, then we can talk about cycling champions from the UAE, whether I am he re or not here. And much of this success will be due to the existence of this velodrome.
What about the integration of the rest of the UAE in the cycling programme, particularly Abu Dhabi?
I have a lot of hope for Abu Dhabi as they are working without talking. There are so many things planned in Abu Dhabi to develop cycling further and this will happen in the next couple of years.
We have given our full backing to all their initiatives. You will see something big soon from Abu Dhabi.
