Zarooni to lead UAE charge at Dubai Para Badminton event

Mohamed Ahmed Al Zarooni will lead the hosts UAE challenge at the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum 3rd Dubai Para Badminton International 2021 Championships that gets underway at the Shabab Al Ahli Club from Tuesday.

Zarooni, who had a magnificent run at the 2019 IWAS World Games winning three gold medals, will lead a team of four which also has two female members — Meera Abouhatab (SL3) and Salama Alkhateri (SL4). Alzarooni will compete in men’s WH2 category.

“This is an important competition for the team as they look for more experience. We are looking to at least make the last 16 here. Meera and Humaid (Fawzi Alsenaani) are quite young and this competition will give them a good learning experience before they participate at the Asian Youth Para Games in Bahrain,” said UAE coach Mohammed Mahmoud.

This will be the first BWF Para Badminton tournament after more than a year because of the Covid-19 Pandemic; the last international meet was held in Peru in February 2020.

As many as 127 players from 29 countries including hosts UAE have confirmed their participation at the March 30-April 4 championship.

Indonesia’s Leani Ratri Oktila, Suryo Nugroho and Dheva Anrimusthi, India’s multiple-time world champion Pramod Bhagat and Manasi Joshi, France’s world champion Lucas Mazur, Malaysia’s Worlds bronze medallist Cheah Like Hou among top names competing in the event.

Among other highlights of the Championships will be teams from Kuwait, Maldives and Nepal who are set to compete here for the first time.

Thani Juma Barregad, chairman of the Fazza International Championships and Chairman of Dubai Club for People of Determination, welcomed all the participating teams to Dubai and the championships. “This is also the season opener for Para Badminton and we are happy to welcome the teams from 29 countries and see some of the best action this week. Good Luck to everyone.”

Oktila, who has been a multiple-time world champion in SL4, said that the tournament will set the tone for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

“I am very happy that finally I can compete again, hopefully it can be a spirit to go to Tokyo.”

“I have good memories of this championships and just like before, I am targeting three gold medals here.”

Meanwhile, Bhagat, a SL3 player, felt that this is a good opportunity to test their form going ahead to Tokyo 2020.

“This is better than no tournament. I missed performing internationally. This is good opportunity to test my Tokyo preparation. Definitely the target is not less than the gold,”

His team-mate Kadam added: “This is the 1st time we got lot of time for preparation. I am so excited to play Dubai international after all this Covid situation. Definitely many things will be changed during tournament but still I am excited to perform under all situations. Because I really missed international tournament’s during lockdown.”