Al Kamali upbeat on qualifying for Games

Dubai: The President of the UAE Athletics Association (UAEAA) is confident that at least three of the country's athletes will make it as direct qualifiers for the London Olympics this year.

"We had decided we do not need to rely on the quota system to get into the Olympics this time. And at this moment, and based on the progress made by our athletes, I can safely say that we are on target to have at least three of our athletes at the London Games," Ahmad Al Kamali, President, UAEAA, told Gulf News as he announced his candidature for a second successive term as president when elections are held post-London 2012.

"Not only do we want our athletes to qualify, we are even looking at them making it to the finals in their respective events at the Olympics," he added.

Overseas training camps

A handful of athletes from the UAE are currently involved in overseas training camps and competitions to build up towards qualifying events that have been scheduled in the next couple of months. Mohammad Abbas, Saud Mohammad, Ali Obaid Al Shurouk and Aliah Mohammad Saeed are all abroad, with the three men at their training base in South Africa while Aliah is undergoing preparations in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

"We have laid out a plan for the qualifying. We want Aliah to run a time of sub-15 minutes and qualify [in the 5,000 run] latest by the middle of May. The men too have their schedule chalked out and we expect them to wrap up their qualifying for London by mid-June latest," Al Kamali said.

"Our main target will be to have all three of our athletes in the finals of their respective events in London," he added.

Al Kamali, who created history when he got elected to the prestigious IAAF Council at the end of the Daegu World Championships in South Korea last year, was confident of the future of athletics in the country, thanks mainly to all the hard work in initiating a grass-roots development programme targeting 14 to 16-year-old athletes.

Gearing up for Brazil

"Definitely, our focus from this moment is to have UAE athletes participating in the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil and that is the reason why we have been preparing the under-14 and under-16 athletes. The future is important to us, but at the same time we need to make our presence felt in London first," Al Kamali said.

"We have worked hard for the past four years and it will be a just reward to have three, if not four, of our athletes earning a direct qualifying at an Olympics. More than anything, it will show what hard work can achieve," he added.