Dubai: UAE rider Wafa Sulaiman Al Kindi yesterday took the country's medal tally into double figures when she claimed her second triumph in the equestrian at the ongoing 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens,.
Wafa, who had won a silver medal in the English Equitation competition on Wednesday, got a bronze for her good riding in the Working Trail Class for BI riders yesterday afternoon.
The 14-year-old UAE rider has one more competition to go and that is the Team Relay for BI riders today where she is teamed up with a Polish rider since the UAE does not have two BI riders at the Athens Summer Games.
"Tomorrow [Saturday] we have our other three riders competing and I have high hopes from them," head instructor Lilian Sternvad told Gulf News from Athens.
Medal tally
Meanwhile, the UAE's tally at the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games had gone up to nine medals earlier yesterday following a successful campaign from the nation's track and field athletes who landed three silver medals.
Reem Hussain Al Baloushi, Khalid Ali Al Hajeri and Mariam Ahmad Al Kayay all bagged silver medals in the track and field events on Thursday to swell the UAE tally to nine.
Reem took the silver medal in the 400 metres run with a time of 1 minute, 17.53 seconds, while Al Hajeri threw the shot put to a distance of 11.36 metres and Mariam ran the women's 400 metres in a time of 1 minute, 39.15 seconds to push the UAE tally up.
The UAE had already bagged a gold medal when Sultan Saif Al Khaili won the top spot in the boys Prix Caprilli in equestrian on the second day of the ten-day competition last week. And the following day teenager Wafa Sulaiman Al Kindi won a silver in the women's English Equitation even though Mohammad Zubair Al Tajjar — a silver medalist at the 2007 Summer Games in Shanghai — was disqualified following his horse's refusal to jump.
Rashid Ali Al Nuaimi had clocked a time of 10 minutes, 31.70 seconds to win a bronze in the men's 5km cycling road race on the opening day of the competition. On Thursday, his teammate Mohammad Khamis Al Hababi matched this feat as he completed the 10km road race in a time of 19 minutes, 33.05 seconds.
The remaining two bronze medals came from the aquatics competition with Abdul Wahab Mohammad Al Hawasin and Khalid Abdul Rahim Al Ali both ending up third best in their respective divisions in the men's backstroke.