Dubai: All eyes will be on the UAE junior swimmers Yaqoob Al Saadi and Ali Hassan when Dubai hosts the 4th Fina World Junior Swimming Championships from August 26-31.
To be held at the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Sports Complex, Dubai has already attracted a record 85 countries for the six-day competition. The last championships held in Lima, Peru had a mere 58 nations.
Commonly known as ‘Junior Worlds’ and first hosted in 2006 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this championship has grown to become the mainstay of junior swimmers seeking a breakthorough in the senior category.
As the hosts, the UAE will be fielding 12 swimmers with a bulk of expectations on Al Ain swimmers Al Saadi and Hassan. Both 16-years-old, Al Saadi will participate in the 100 metres butterfly and 200 metres backstroke, while Hassan will be in the 50 metres and 100 metres butterfly races. “Realistically, the medal expectations from these two youngsters are in another two years’ time. But they have been clocking some good timings in their events during their training sessions,” Ahmad Al Falasi, President of the UAE Swimming Association (UAE SA) and Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) told Gulf News.
The UAE squad has been training under American coach Jay Benner at the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Sports Complex since the past two months. The swimmers’ first test will come at the Arab Swimming Championship, to be held in Jordan from July 5-8.
“It will be a good test event for our swimmers, but we need to be realistic even if we do not land up with medals. These juniors are being prepared for the future and we expect them to return with medals at the next championship in 2015,” Al Falasi promised.
The Fina competition is open to all swimmers under the age of 18 years and held biennially since the inaugural edition in 2006. The third edition was held in Lima, Peru is 2011 and the fourth one was initially scheduled to be held in Casablanca, Morocco.
However in August last year, Casablanca withdrew its bid citing lack of funds and time to host the competition. The world governing body then handed over the organisation to Dubai.
In the past, Dubai has played host to a number of Fina-organised events including several rounds of the Fina Open Water Swimming World Cup, the Fina World Swimming Championships (25 metres) and the Fina/Midea Diving Championships. “This competition is a value addition to Dubai as we will get the opportunity to see some of the stars of the future right here,” noted Dr Ahmad Sa’ad Al Sharif, General Secretary, Dubai Sports Council (DSC).
