Dubai: The President of the Emirates Weightlifting Federation (EWF) has vouched that Aisha Al Beloushi, the lone UAE weightlifter, will give a proper account of her potential when she represents the country at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games next month.
The Rio Olympics will be held from August 5 to 21. The seven-member women’s team that earned the country a spot in Rio during the Asian Weightlifting Championships that concluded in Tashkent, landed in Dubai on Thursday.
Based on the performance of all its lifters, the UAE managed to bag one qualifying spot at the Summer Games. The Asian women’s competition attracted 14 entries, from which Vietnam took the top spot with 112 points leaving the hosts in second (101), India (100) in third, Mongolia (96) in fourth, Philippines (91) in fifth, Turkmenistan (83) and the UAE (81) in seventh.
However, three nations subsequently had to step aside and give up their spots after being reportedly found to fail doping tests. The UAE moved up into fourth place, and, along with it a spot for Rio.
“Weightlifting is the only discipline that an athlete from the UAE has qualified for a second successive Olympic Games after London 2012,” Sultan Bin Mejren, President, EWF told media on Thursday.
Bin Mejren, who has been at the helm of the EWF since 1996, hailed the achievement despite a lack of weightlifting facilities in the UAE. “We do not even have a dedicated training venue for these athletes. But they have been labouring all along and today we have a second UAE weightlifter who has qualified for the Olympic Games,” he noted.
“And though it is because of team effort that the UAE has earned an automatic spot in women’s weightlifting, we are seriously looking at everything that can be done to ensure that our lifter returns with flying colours,” Bin Mejren said.
“Weightlifting is one of the examples in the UAE that everything is possible if someone wants to show a true fighting spirit. Our lifters have been training in a temporary facility and yet they have managed to qualify for two Olympic Games on the trot,” he added.
The UAE’s Tunisian coach Redha Ayachi reckoned Al Beloushi has chances of ending in the top-ten in her weight category in Rio. The young lifters have been training on a daily basis in Deira between 1.30pm and 3.30pm.
“All these girls have been training since the past year and a half, and they deserve this place at the Olympics. We have been training daily, except the weekends, and the next few weeks will be crucial in her build-up for the Games,” the coach observed.
However, Al Beloushi will have to be wary and ensure she recovers from a neck injury she has sustained during the course of the Asian competition. “Indeed, we will have to first attend to the treatment of this minor injury. We will see who is the best specialist she can go to and get the injury treated so that she can start earnestly with her preparations for Rio,” Jasem Al Hammadi, Assistant Director, Technical Committee, EWF, said.
“The next few weeks are the most important, and we are all confident that weightlifting in the UAE will improve in the long run,” he added.
