Dubai: The UAE National Olympic Committee (UAE NOC) is all set to take the next logical step in the organisation of the fourth edition of the UAE School Olympic Games, which start next week.
The organising committee of the UAE School Olympic Games met at the UAE NOC headquarters last Monday and discussed various options to enable athletes, their parents, teachers and officials to take the next step towards athletic brilliance.
The Technical and Sports Affairs Department of the UAE NOC had earlier this summer endorsed a three-tier competition format for the fourth edition of the Games that get under way from next week.
The first three editions of the annual interschool event had followed a dual-tier format wherein schools first competed with an educational zone and only the best qualified for the national-level finals that have so far been hosted by Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.
One of the mandatory requirements was that the various zonal winners were shifted to ten specialised zonal training centres until the year-end national level finals, normally held at the end of the academic year.
“Three years has been a long time for everyone concerned. We have seen the pros and the cons and now we are adept at finding the right sort of balance for the top performers and the ones who are about to break into the top. The past three years have been a learning process and we are proud of what we have achieved through the UAE School Olympic Games so far,” Mohammad Al Kamali, General Secretary, UAE NOC told Gulf News.
With the number of competitors increasing gradually in just three years, the UAE NOC has decided to slip in a third level of competition sandwiched between the zonal preliminary rounds and the finals.
“The basic aim of the qualifying events is to gauge the ability of the athletes, while also testing their competitive and technical skills. We need to go by the basic idea that all these youngsters are talented and we need to unearth this hidden talent,” Al Kamali added.
Earlier last month, the UAE NOC conducted workshops, training programmes and site visits for officials involved with the organisation of the UAE School Olympic Games. “We are all ready for yet another successful edition of the Games,” Al Kamali said.
“A lot of hard work has gone into preparing the stage for these young athletes to perform, and we will ensure that only the best come through the programme,” he promised.
The UAE School Olympic Games is an initiative from Shaikh Ahmad Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President, UAE NOC under the directives of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman, Dubai Sports Council. The Games seeks to identify and nurture top-class international athletes through an annual organisation of competitions in select Olympic disciplines.
Earlier this year, the executive board of directors had ratified the appointment of technical directors for eight Olympic sports including track and field, showjumping, shooting, judo, sailing, archery, taekwondo and fencing.
In addition, the UAE NOC has appointed a high-powered panel of experts to oversee the entire youth development programme. Wolfgang Thiel of Germany heads the experts panel along with former Olympic champions including Saeed Aouita of Morocco, Sergei Matrossian of Ukraine, Kim Jeong-ho of South Korea and Ramzi Baltayeb, an expert in biological sciences from Tunisia.
