IPC all set for sweeping changes at Assembly in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi: Mohammad Fadel Al Hameli, chairman of the UAE Disabled Sports Federation, hopes to be re-elected for the International Paralympic Committee’s membership seat for the second term running. The elections are being held at the 18th International Paralympic Committee (IPC) General Assembly and Conference that got underway at the ADNEC here on Tuesday.

The four-day conference, held under the patronage of Major General Shaikh Nahyan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Sports Council, is hosting 176 members representing 25 federations from various countries.

The highlight of the assembly will be the transition of power at the at apex of IPC — current president, Sir Philip Craven of the United Kingdom, will be making way for a new chairman along with new members of its board. Running for the post of president are Patrick Jarvis of the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) Canada, Andrew Parsons NPC Brazil, John Petersson NPC Denmark and Haidi Zhang of NPC China.

For the IPC vice president’s post will be Duane Kale of NPC New Zealand and Petersson. Petersson will be eyeing the post only if he fails to win the top office. UAE’s Majid Rashed, president of the Asian Paralympic Committee (APC) was also supposed to run for vice-presidentship, but pulled out to focus solely on Asia’s development.

“This is a very historical election as after 16 years we will be having a new president. The UAE is well-known now and when we had bid for hosting this event, our chance was high. It is great that they showed trust in us to host such a major assembly. We are doing our best for everyone to feel at home,” said Rashed adding that he was confident the UAE’s Al Hameli would retain his place.

“I think if they choose Al Hameli then it is a right choice. He has been positive in the movement and we are fully supporting him. I withdrew from running for the vice-president’s post because when the final list came, I saw there were eight or nine members from Asia running for the member at large. So will definitely have enough representation and so I would rather concentrate on Asia completely,” revealed Rashed.

Al Hameli, in a press conference held earlier, had stated that the UAE’s wise leadership enthusiastically supports the participation of ‘people of determination’ in sports, especially as the UAE is preparing to host the Special Olympics World Summer Games 2019, as the first country in the Middle East and North Africa to host this major international event.

Rashed, who is spearheading the APC for the past two and half years after the office was shifted from Malaysia to UAE, was of the view that the paralympic movement has taken a new path in Asia and thus they were looking to build on it.

“The Asian Paralympic Committee is fully functioning from here and we have built our strategic plans together in projects we call Asia Gathering. From that point, everyone came and shared their ideas. With IPC Sports Academy we created a professional strategic plan with objectives and priorities,” said Rashed, who also revealed that APC’s battle with Malaysian authorities on mismanagement of funds is not over and they are trying to recover it legally.

“We have appointed our lawyers and they are on it. However, now we are focusing on the development of the APC and its member nations. UAE Paralympic Committee with Dubai and Abu Dhabi at the helm are supporting a lot for the development,” notified Rashed, who was also pleased to get few of the suspended countries back on board in his tenure.

“We were successful in getting suspended countries India and Yemen back and are working hard to get Bangladesh in and are in close talks with their sports federation. You cannot afford to keep Bangladesh out as more than 12 million disabled people live in that country so imagine how many of them would like to compete in sports. Earlier, lack of communication was a major problem and that we have resolved by being one family now,” said Rashed, who felt that APC’s challenge is also the global challenge.

“The financial situation of APC and the financial challenges of Asian NPCs is something we are working on constantly. But the best thing to happen to Asia are the next three major events — 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, Korea, Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and 2022 Winter Paralympic Games in China. We have to grab these opportunities as there will be a lot of courses for coaches, administrators, volunteers, referees etc,” said Rashed adding that Asian countries should make the most by taking part in these programmes and try to impart the knowledge gained in the development of athletes and the sport in their country.

“These host nations will be opening their disabled centres and these services will be of huge help. So it is not about money always; these trainings are also costly if you try to do them on your own. The biggest sponsors will be in Asia in the next 10 years and my job will be to see how to find the fruit and pick it,” said Rashed, who hailed the work done by IPC’s outgoing President Craven.

“We learn a lot from IPC and Craven did a great job with his members and it wasn’t easy to get world recognition. IPC had a charity view in the beginning, but now it has got a professional status. IPC considers Asia as the biggest continent in the world and so we have a very strong relation. Another partner is Ottobock, who specialises in prosthetic devices and they are also focusing on Asia now which is good,” felt Rashed, how also asserted that para-athletes from the Asian continent have come a long way.

“The gap between the para-athletes in Asia and other part of the world is not big any more. The gap was huge 20-years ago when I was participating. The media has made sure that people have an understanding of the sport now and because of that we have caught up fast and we have good para-athletes,” said Rashed, who felt UAE’s effort to host major events from powerlifting, archery, athletics to hand cycling has done a lot of good for the Asian para-athletes.

“Best para-athletes from the globe like to come here to test themselves against the cream and our events are also qualifying events for major events like World Games. It’s over 10 years we are doing this and we have courses for referees and athletes as well which other members can avail of,” said Rashed.