Abu Dhabi Sports Council announced the successful completion of the Abu Dhabi Schools Champions Swimming Festival, which was held yesterday afternoon at the Mohamed bin Zayed City Olympic Swimming Complex.
This competition took place in the lead up to the FINA World Swimming Championships, providing students with the opportunity to compete at world-class standards.
Over 50 of Abu Dhabi’s top talent swimmers between the ages of 11 and 18, who are students in various public schools across the city, competed in four 25-meter events: crawl, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly.
Emirati swimmer Ahmed Muhammad Al-Marzouqi (16 years) won the award for best swimmer in the butterfly race in his age category while his fellow Emirati swimmer Muhammad Rashid Al-Hammadi (16 years) won the award for best swimmer in breaststroke race in his respective age category. The best swimmer award in the backstroke race went to Bilal Khaled Mukhtar (17 years) in his age category, while Ayham Rami Muhammad (11 years) was awarded best swimmer in the freestyle race in the 2010 age category.
Emirati swimmers Ahmed Muhammad Al-Marzouqi and Muhammad Rashid Al-Hammadi (16 years) have also been selected to represent the UAE in the upcoming World Swimming Competitions FINA which will be hosted by the UAE in December 2021.
Commenting on his win, the young Emirati swimmer Ahmed Muhammad Al-Marzouqi said: ‘‘I am so happy to have won and proud to be part of being part of the Abu Dhabi Schools Champions Swimming Festival. It was an amazing experience to compete in a race of this professional caliber. It will encourage me to pursue my dreams.
He added, "This festival was the perfect preparation in the lead up to the upcoming World Swimming Championships FINA in Abu Dhabi, where I am so excited to participate and represent my nation as part of the UAE National Team. God willing, I hope to make my country proud.”
Speaking about the Abu Dhabi Schools Champions Festival, HE Talal Al Hashemi, Executive Director of Sports Developments Sector, at the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, said: ‘‘We are proud to hold the first Abu Dhabi Schools Champions Swimming Festival, in partnership with Emirates Schools Establishment, Department of Community Development. This is a great opportunity to showcase the talent of Abu Dhabi government schools through the participation of 50 of their best students. It is these types of competitions that will elevate the level of sports in the nation, while encouraging youth to embrace the spirit of sportsmanship and sporting excellence.”
The Swimming Festival was the concluding event of Phase 1 of the Abu Dhabi Schools Champions competition which kicked off in October 2021 and took place in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Al Dhafra, across 5 sanctioned sports: football, basketball, volleyball, handball and athletics.
Phase 1, which was run as an intra-school competition between October and December 2021, with matches played among cycles during weekdays in the schools, was met with amazing success with the participation over 30,000 students and 3500 team from over 100 public schools.
In the second phase, top performing school teams will compete against each other in an inter-school competition from January 2022 to March 2022. In the third phase, top teams from each city will compete in the semi-finals which will be held in Abu Dhabi. Qualifying teams, consisting of 2 teams from Abu Dhabi, 2 from Al Ain and 1 from Al Dhafra, will then compete in the Finals which will be held at NYU University in Abu Dhabi.
Prizes include professional training camps with Abu Dhabi Sports Council global partners, tickets to attend live professional league matches and tickets to global tournaments organized by the Abu Dhabi Sports Council with the opportunity to meet international sports stars, alongside cups and medals for winning teams and schools.
For registration and more information, please visit champions.adsc.ae
