Dubai: His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, witnessed the second edition of the ‘Camel Trek Race - 2021’ for UAE expats held at Dubai’s Al Marmoom racetrack on Wednesday.
In a screenshot from the video shared by Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Center (HHC), Sheikh Mohammed was seen giving the thumbs up to signal the start of the race participated in by 17 expats from 12 countries.
The camel riders were participants in the previous camel treks organised by the HHC. They came from Italy, Germany, Iran, United States, Spain, China, the Czech Republic, France, United Kingdom, Romania, South Africa and Finland.
Italian national Camilla Rodriguez won first place after finishing the one-kilometre race, with a record time of one minute and 38 seconds, followed by French-Japanese Anna Aiko in second place while Chinese national Xiaozhe Huo (Alexis) came in third position.
Huge prizes
Cash prizes were given to the winners. Rodriguez received Dh100,000 while Aiko and Huo got Dh50,000 and Dh30,000 respectively. The fourth place finisherw was rewarded with Dh15,000; fifth place, Dh10,000; and those who finished from sixth to tenth places each received Dh5,000.
Growing popularity
Hind bin Demaithan Al Qemzi, HHC Director of Events, expressed her pride and gratitude of Sheikh Mohammed and Sheikh Hamdan. She added: “The participants in the raace came from various nationalities. This is a testament to the growing popularity of Emirati culture and camel racing in particular among peoples of the world.”
Participants
Those who participated in the race were: Camilla Rodriguez from Italy, Linda Krokenberger, Martin Kaiser, Denise Ostermann and Jana Schimedel from Germany, Farnoush Ezatollah (Iran), Alexander Raspberry (USA), Ignacio Delgado (Spain), Xiaozhe Huo (China), Danossi Zdenkova (Czech Republic), Anna Aiko and Emily Chapant (France), Shirley Wilkinson and Jodie Mercati (UK), Rluca Gossav (Romania), Marian Valero (South Africa), Rabab El Guwiri (Finland).
