Abu Dhabi: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, yesterday received the national Jiu -Jitsu team members who won medals at the Abu Dhabi World Youth Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
Shaikh Mohammad congratulated the team members, who were accompanied by Abdul Monem Al Hashemi, Chairman of the UAE Jiu Jitsu Federation and President of the Asian Jiu-Jitsu Union.
Shaikh Mohammad congratulated the players on the outstanding results, and wished them good luck to score more victories in other international championships.
He expressed his pleasure at meeting them after scoring excellent results in the championship.
Shaikh Mohammad lauded the skills of players and efforts of the administrative and technical staff for their diligent efforts to win top places in this championship and others.
He also praised the sponsors for their continuous support to make such sports events a success to boost the UAE sports status.
Nine gold
The UAE youngsters clinched 31 medals including nine gold to end on second spot in the medals tally behind Russia, who claimed 16 golds, 11 silver and 29 bronze.
In all 700 fighters from 40 countries took part in the three-day event at the Mubadala Arena at Zayed Sports City. The gold medallists in the men’s category were Omar Al Suweidi (46kg), Khaled Al Shehhi (50kg), Khalifa Humaid Al Kaabi (60kg), Omar Al Fadhli (62kg), Mohammed Ali Al Suweidi (66kg), Omar Ahmad Al Hosani (73), all in the U18’s, and Khalid Eskandar Al Blooshi (56kg) in the U21s.
Hana Al Hanaei (40kg) and Shamma Al Kalbani (57kg) picked up gold medals for the UAE in the women’s category, while there were silver medals for Mahra Al Hanaei (52kg), Bashayer Al Matroushi (63kg), and bronze for Wadima Al Yafei (70kg).
The only major disappointment for UAE came when hot favourite Humaid Al Kaabi (69kg) lost his U-21 bout to Belgian Detemmerman Amaury and had to be content with the second spot.
“To return with 31 medals is a pretty good strike rate. We had a lot of fighters taking part at this level for the first time and most of them took podium finishes, which is a sign of progress,” said a jubilant Omar Al Fadhli, who clinched gold in the 62-kg U-21 category.
“To return with 31 medals is a pretty good strike rate. We had a lot of fighters taking part at this level for the first time and most of them took podium finishes, which is a sign of progress,” said a jubilant Omar Al Fadhli, who clinched gold in the 62-kg U-21 category.
— With inputs from WAM
