General Authority of Sports and UAE Athletics Federation join forces to devise talent discovery strategies

H.E Sheikh Suhail bin Butti Al Maktoum, Executive Director of the Sports Development Sector at the General Sports Authority, met Major General Dr. Muhammad Abdullah Al Murr, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Athletics Federation, to develop various strategies for the Federation to promote the discovery of new talents and boost chances of achieving more continental and international victories for the national teams. Athletics has also been categorised as one of the priority sports during the meeting. The meeting was attended by Nasser bin Ashour, Secretary-General of the Emirates Athletics Federation and members of the Board of Directors, Faisal Al Khamiri and Rashid Nasser.

H.E Sheikh Suhail bin Butti Al Maktoum said: “In line with the Sports Sector Strategy 2032, the Authority is collaborating with priority sports federations to devise various strategies aimed at promoting governance within federations and enhancing administrative work to boost the role of federations in drawing more continental and international achievements for the country.”

He added: “Together with the federations, we intend to discover new talents from various age groups and schedule several programs for their development, in order to achieve more international victories. Through this, we aim to promote the presence of athletics within the society, especially among students. Our strategy further focuses on identifying new sports talents in priority sports within the School Games Project.”

Major General Dr. Muhammad Abdullah Al Murr said: “Identifying athletics as one of the priority sports will encourage athletes to put optimum efforts in achieving further continental and international milestones and enable them to hoist the UAE flag in various international forums. We look forward to expanding our collaboration with the Authority and partner with all government entities and private sector institutions to create a system for practicing athletics and assist in identifying new athletes with necessary height, speed, and strength to increase our prospects of winning continental and global championships.”

During the meeting, they further evaluated the forms addressed to all priority sports federations that included details of federation’s working structures and the means to improve their governance, talents in each group and their development plans.

Following the announcement of Sports Coordinating Council on the list of priority sports that included athletics, judo, archery, bow and arrow, and fencing, the Authority further aims to hold meetings and workshops with all priority sports federations to design future strategies for the development of new sports championships.

Athletics is a major Olympic sport that has been prevalent in all the previous tournaments. In the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020, athletes from 43 countries took home as many as 144 medals, encouraging participation of other countries in the competition.