UAE target at least four medals at Paralympics

Dubai: Veteran weightlifter Mohammad Khamis Khalaf and shooter Abdullah Sultan Al Aryani will lead the UAE’s challenge at the 2012 Paralympic Games to be held in London from Wednesday.

Khalaf has been among the most successful Paralympic athletes from the UAE, while Al Aryani has had a fine build-up to London, winning gold medals at two successive ISSF World Cups in the USA and Australia and a silver medal at the IWAS Games held in the UAE earlier this year.

“We have a realistic hope for at least four medals in London,” said Thani Juma Berregad, President of the Dubai Special Needs Club.

“A lot of hard work has been put in by the athletes and the support team and we think this bunch of athletes will do well in London.

“This time we ensured we chose the best we have so that the UAE flag can flutter in London due to the achievements of our athletes.”

The 15-member UAE team contains 11 track and field athletes, two shooters and two powerlifters.

As well as Khalaf and Al Aryani, the squad also includes Mohammad Al Hammadi — an accomplished sprint and middle-distance runner with several medals to his name in the T34 class — Mohammad Vahdani, who will be in the 100m, 200m and 400m wheelchair races, powerlifter Ahmad Khamis Noori in the F57 class and female athletes Thuraya Al Zaabi, Maryam Khamis Al Matroushi, Siham Masaoud and Sakina Ghuloom, among others.

“The athletes who are in London have shown the ability to perform at the highest level and we made sure we organised international competitions like the IWAS Games staged in Sharjah earlier this year so that our athletes had the right exposure going for an important event like the Paralympics,” Berregad added.

Another top official who travelled with the team to London, Majid Al Usaimi, promised the squad would give their all at the Paralympics. “We are not here on a picnic. We are here to prove a point and we will give our best and make the UAE flag proud,” the Secretary General of the UAE Paralympics told Gulf News from London.

“We are here looking for medals, preferably gold medals so that the UAE flag flutters high and our athletes are in the limelight for their achievements on the field.

“We have set a modest target of two to four medals and it is our desire that all these are gold. We have planned in detail for the athletes and we are confident they will give their best for the UAE.”

The opening ceremony will be held at 8.30pm BST (11.30pm UAE) on Wednesday and the Games will see a record 4,200 athletes from 166 countries taking part.

The 11 days of competition will see the world’s top disabled athletes, including ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorius, converge on London for what organisers believe is the biggest and most high-profile Paralympics in its 52-year history. The venues are nearly sold-out and the action is expected to be watched by millions on television worldwide.

China held the last Paralympics in Beijing in 2008 and did much to raise the profile of the Games as the hosts went on to win 211 medals, including 89 golds.

But challenging China this time around will be hosts ParalympicsGB, who have been set a minimum target of 103 medals from at least 12 different sports — one better than in Beijing — and to match their second-place finish four years ago.