Stage set for ninth edition of the Nad Al Sheba Sports Tournament
- 01 Apr 2022
Gulf Today, Staff Reporter
The biggest highlight of the Ramadan sports events in the UAE, the much-anticipated Nad Al Sheba (NAS) Sports Tournament 2022, will begin in Dubai on Saturday.
Organised by the Dubai Sports Council (DSC), the NAS Sports Tournament is the biggest event of its kind in terms of participation and prize money, and has been held every year in the Holy Month of Ramadan since 2013 at the iconic Nad Al Sheba Sports Complex, except in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic outbreak.
Six sports disciplines, including volleyball, padel, wheelchair basketball, running, cycling, and jiu-jitsu, will be part of the largest annual sports tournament.
The NAS Run will feature races in different categories across two distances — 5km and 10km — and it is open to all men and women living in the UAE, of any nationality or ability.
One of the highlights of the tournament, the 75km NAS Cycling Championship will also witness competition across multiple categories like Men’s Open, People of Determination category, Women’s Open, Amateur Emiratis and Amateur Female.
The NAS Padel Championships will take place in Nad Al Sheba Sports Complex with competitions in two different categories -individual and team.
To make the padel competition bigger, the GCC Men’s Team Championship category has been added by the organisers to this year’s event.
The GCC Men’s Team Championship will run alongside the UAE Padel Association tournament, which will feature competitions in six different categories: UAEPA Beginner-Men; UAEPA Intermediate-Men; UAEPA Advance-Men; UAEPA PRO-Men; Doubles-Men; and UAEPA Intermediate-Women.
In the volleyball championship, the participating teams are divided into two groups, and the top two teams from each group will progress to the semi-final stage.
The organizing committee has completed all the preparations to receive the athletes and the public every day after Taraweeh prayers. All the arrangements are in place to ensure that fans can enjoy intense sports competitions, strong performances, win many daily prizes, and enhance social communication in a wonderful Ramadan atmosphere.The fans also have the chance to win four Ford 2022 cars provided by Al Tayer Motors, and the tournament offers financial prizes worth more than Dhs3,50,000 million to the winners of the ninth edition of the event.
The past eight editions of the Nad Al Sheba Sports Tournament have attracted more than 33,000 amateur and professional male and female athletes of different ages and nationalities to participate in various sports competitions, which have contributed to the spread of the game and the emergence of a generation of promising athletes in various sports.
The event started in the year 2013 and witnessed the participation of 1500 athletes in its inaugural edition.
Growing by leaps and bounds, the tournament hit a new height when around 7,000 participants representing 90 nationalities competed in the seventh edition. A number of sports categories have also been increased with each renewal of the Nad Al Sheba Tournament. It reached a maximum of 13 sports disciplines in the seventh edition.
In 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and precautionary measures, the eighth edition of the tournament was organized with the participation of nearly 3,000 participants of different ages and nationalities who competed in three sports: running, cycling and padel tennis.
