UAE’s Lamia lifts gold at Singapore International Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Adding another feather to her cap, Lamia Tariq Malallah made the UAE proud again after finishing on top at the first Singapore International Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship, which concluded on Sunday.

With over 200 participants representing 15 countries, with a majority from Asian countries, the championship of such stature was hosted by Singapore for the first time, and it ended on a successful note.

Lamia, the only official National Gymnast of the UAE, competed in this strong Asian championship right after her win at the GCC Grand Series held in November this year.

Continuing her rise in the world of gymnastics, Lamia left her much-favored competitors from Singapore and Thailand in the dust with her dazzling performance.

In rhythmic gymnastics, four different scores are given for difficulty, artistry, execution, and deduction. When all four scores are added together, a final score is given to each gymnast in competitions in accordance with International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) standards.

Flying the Arab flag high in the Asian country, Lamia competed in the 2011 A Category and scored higher in the difficulty category in her hoop apparatus with a score of 6.700 in comparison to her competitors.

The UAE’s wonder kid, the youngest Emirati gymnast to win the prestigious Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Award in 2019, got a total of 20.867 points in hoop to clinch the top spot.

She had a drop in her club apparatus routine, which resulted in a lower execution score of 5.250 with a total of 18.300 and a bronze medal, but her overall scoring due to her hoop propelled her to first place and gold in All Around with a final score of 39.167 for the UAE.

Beaming with pride, Lamia declared proudly from Singapore that she wants to fly the UAE flag in as many countries as possible so that people take notice of who Emiratis are.

Recently, Lamia won first place in the hoop category of the GCC Grand Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship Dubai 2022, held at the Al Nasr Club in November.

The championship was organized by the Dubai Youth Olympic School of Rhythmic Gymnastics in collaboration with the Dubai Sports Council (DSC).

It was the second international outing for the Emirati gymnast since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier in July, Lamia bagged gold at the Besiktas JK Cup gymnastic competition held in Istanbul, Turkey.

Nominated by the General Authority of Sports and the UAE National Olympic Committee to represent the nation at the international events, the 11-year-old finished on top in the A category for gymnasts born between 2010 and 2011.

Lamia, whose first gold medal came at the age of six when she won the inaugural Dubai International Junior Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in 2017, says she is fully focused on her goal to win gold at the Youth Olympic Games, which are scheduled to take place in Dakar, Senegal, in 2026.

She also bagged top honours at the International Rhythmic Gymnastics Youth Cup held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 2019.

Lamia also won gold medals at the 2017 Open GR Azur International in Nice, France, and at the 2018 Armonia Cup in Thessaloniki, Greece.

She followed this up with a silver medal at the 2017 Winter Cup in Leverkusen, Germany, and clinched a bronze at the prestigious Novogorsk Winter Cup in Moscow at the end of 2018.