Al Moutawakil praises Al Kaabi

Nawal Al Moutawakil, the International Olympic Committee member and the former Gold medalist in the Olympic Games in Los Angles in 1984, congratulated Major General Mohammad Hilal Al Kaabi, Deputy Chief of Staff of the UAE Armed Forces and the elected President of the Athletics Association, for winning the presidency seat in the elections held last week.

Nawal Al Moutawakil was the first Arab, African and Moroccan woman to win a gold medal in the Olympic Games. She won the gold in the 400m hurdles at the Los Angeles Games in 1984. Recently she was selected to become a member in the International Olympic Committee and before that she was Minister of Sports and Youth in her country, Morocco. Al Moutawakil expressed her happiness with the win of Al Kaabi.

"The UAE Athletics General Assembly refused to lose a leader like Al Kaabi and voted for him to become President for the second time, because they know that he is the best man who can lead the UAE athletics and achieve success in the coming years." said Al Moutawakil.

She also praised Monira Safar as the first UAE lady to win the athletics association membership through elections.

"This is a good sign for the future of the UAE women sport. I am sure that Monira will do her best in the UAE athletics association to spread wide and develop the athletics among women in the UAE." Al Moutawakil said.

Meanwhile, the first meeting of the new athletics association was postponed due to the absence of the board president Major General Mohammad Hilal Al Kaabi who is on an external official visit. The meeting was scheduled to discuss the national teams' commitments in the coming months and distribute posts between the members.

Naser Moraddad is likely to become the deputy president of the board while Obaid Saeed may become the general secretary. Dr Abdullah Abdul Karim is likely to emerge as the financial manager.