UAE women’s weightlifting team get heroic welcome

Aliah Al Baloushi competing in the women’s 58kg weightlifting competition Dubai Top sports officials from the UAE have hailed the historic qualification of one of the country’s women weightlifters to the 2012 London Olympics. The UAE women’s squad of six lifters notched enough points to end in fifth position at the 2012 Asian Championships to claim one of six individual qualifying spots on offer in the continental Olympics qualifier held in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, earlier this week.
“We are proud to belong to this historic moment when we see one of our women athletes qualify to an Olympic Games,” Mohammad Al Kamali, General Secretary of the UAE National Olympic Committee (UAE NOC) told Gulf News while receiving the nation’s squad from South Korea at the Dubai International Airport’s VIP Majlis here Wednesday morning.
The UAE women’s squad of Aliah Al Baloushi (58kg), Abeer Faraj (63kg), Khadija Mohammad and Latifa Al Merri (75kg), and Yasmin Abbas and Al Anoud Faraj (+75kg) will now train at the national team base at Al Shabab Club until the UAE Weightlifting Federation (UAEWF) decides which of their lifters will travel to London to take part in the Games this summer.
“The girls need to rest now and the board of directors will meet with the technical committee to decide on the one woman who will be part of this historic moment in London,” Sultan Bin Mejren, President of the UAEWF, said.
Bin Mejren was joined by Al Kamali; Ebrahim Abdul Malik, Secretary General of the General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare (GAYSW); Jassim Abdul Rahman Al Awazi, Board Member of the UAEWF; and Awatif Ebrahim Al Mutawa’a, General Supervisor of the women’s weightlifting squad, in receiving the squad at the airport.
“This accomplishment is just one of the sporting moments that have justified the stress laid by the UAE leadership under President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, and His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai,” Al Kamali said.
Abdul Malik said: “It is a statement to show that women’s sports in the UAE has been consistently improving and moving as per the strategic plan laid down and circulated by the General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare to all sports federations and associations in the country.”
Al Awazi added: “This is the first time that our women have qualified for an Olympics and this will definitely not be the last time they will be doing so. This is the sport of the future and we can only hope for bigger and better achievements from these girls in the future.”