Dubai: A top official from the German Karate Federation believes the UAE women's karate team is capable of coming home with a medal during next month's Asian Games in Doha.
"I think they deserve a gold medal just for the hard work that they are putting in," Wolffgang Weeigert, Vice-President of the German Karate Federation (GKF) told Gulf News as he watched the UAE women train under the leadership of Shaikha Maitha Bint Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
"The important thing for this team is that they have been doing everything right to achieve this sort of success. They've been training hard and to me, that translates into a medal at the Asian Games," the official noted.
Weeigert was the leader of a squad of five Germans and a specialist coach to train with the UAE team preparing for the Asian Games. The Germans spent a major part of last week in Dubai handing down techniques to an eager bunch of fighters from the UAE.
Weeigert lauded the efforts of Shaikha Maitha in organising a four-week camp for the UAE team members.
"In Europe, we train for just one week or ten days prior to a competition. We do not train so hard. You cannot work harder than this, this is the limit and they have done it all. They can now hope for a medal on what they have done so far," Weeigert stated.
However, the German did not discount the element of luck during competition. "Each competition is at least 50 per cent luck. There may be an injury or a referee may not spot a kick or worse still, be biased with the favourite," Weeigert said.
"The team has had enough of hard work. Now they need a bit of luck and I am sure they will make this country proud at the Asian Games," he added.
