Dubai: The UAE's challenge at next week's Second Gulf Women Sports Championships will be led by Shaikha Maitha Bint Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum as the captain of the taekwondo team.
Joining her quest for gold in next week's competition in the capital will be her Zabeel Club teammates Haya Sameer Juma, Heba Harmoush, Randa Emam and Noora Al Shamsi. The names of three more athletes are yet to be announced and will be made known over the next two days. "Eight girls will be representing the UAE and of these four are from Zabeel Club. We have one girl who may be the fifth player in our side, but we will have to wait and see as she is very new," Shaikha Maitha told Gulf News at Zabeel Club on Saturday.
Athletes from Zabeel Club sparred with the Al Ahli Club squad in an attempt to narrow down on the final three members of the eight-member squad needed to travel to Abu Dhabi next week. "These trials should give us a fair idea of how good these new girls are. Depending on their performance we will decide who will be a member of the UAE squad for Abu Dhabi. If there is a deserving candidate who we think is better then we will take her along," she added.
The UAE athletes have been training for the past couple of days in the company of a strong delegation coming from the Beijing Shi Cha Hai Sports School, China. There are nine taekwondo players in the Chinese team, many of them Olympians, and the UAE girls have been on a steep learning curve.
"This is only the beginning stages of the training with the Chinese team. So far we have done some easy training.
"From tomorrow (Sunday) it is just going to be specific training geared towards the countdown for the competition in Abu Dhabi. So all the training will be focused towards the competition from now on," Shaikha Maitha asserted.
Results
53kgs: Heba Harmoush (Zabeel Club) bt Famzia Abdul Rahman (Al Ahli Club) 5-0 (KO); Haya Sameer Juma (Zabeel Club) bt Mariam Mohammad Hassan (Al Ahli) 8-0 (Withdrawal); Nabila Mansour (Zabeel Club) bt Manal Ahmad (Al Ahli) 6-0 (Withdrawal).
57kgs: Randa Emam (Zabeel Club) bt Basma Ahmad Eisa (Al Ahli) Randa Emam won on superiority decision from referees after being tied 2-2 and death point.
62kgs: Feryal Jawad (Zabeel Club) bt Zainab Al Beloushi (Al Ahli) 8-0 (Disqualified); Heba Khader (Zabeel Club) bt Abeer Abdullah (Al Ahli) 11-0 (Disqualified).
73kgs: Khadijah Al Hassouni bt Amal Hassan (Al Ahli) 6-0 (KO)
