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The kingdom’s para-athletes are set to compete against the best in the world in the Marrakech 2022 Grand Prix in Morocco in a bid to win more medals as well as secure qualifications for two major championships in Paris over the coming two years.
The seven-strong team, which is made up of Roba Alomari, Ahmed Meshaima, Maryam Alhamidi, Zaina Albalooshi, Hamad Altamimi, Bassam Ameeri and Saad Mohamed Almaal, will be joining around 450 para-athletes from more than 40 African, European, Asian and American countries in the sixth International Para Athletics Meeting. This competition is part of the Grand Prix series that is under the aegis of World Para Athletics.
Bahrain’s star competitors have been training hard five-days a week in the lead up to the games with Coach Hussain Muftah and the team’s technical director and admin Eman Hussain has high hopes for the squad.
“They have been doing really well in training and have been hitting those numbers,” she said. “We hope our para-athletes will achieve the same results in Morocco as we have our eyes set on setting a new record for qualifiers to compete in Paris in the World Athletics Games in 2023 and the Paralympic Games in 2024.
“Four of our stars have already qualified for the World Athletics Games in 2023 which are Roba, Ahmed, Maryam and Saad and we are gunning for our other para-athletes to follow suit.”
Aside from Coach Muftah and team admin Hussain, the delegation heading to Morocco also includes captain Abdulla Alhusaini as the chef de mission and board member in the Bahrain Sports Federation for Disabilities and coach, Mousa Hassan.
This International meeting, set from September 11 to 18, will feature the participation of Paralympic champions who have reached world records in their specialties and it will also give them the opportunity to improve their world ranking.
Bahraini Paralympian Alomari, who has competed in the UK, the UAE, Kuwait, Morocco, Indonesia, China, Brazil, Oman, Tokyo and South Korea clinched more than 25 gold, 13 silver and six bronze in her sporting career, is gunning for glory yet again and believes in her fellow teammates.
“This is a very important competition for all of us because of the qualifications to Paris,” said the 31-year-old from Hamad Town who was a paraplegic by birth, had joined the Bahrain Disabled Sports Federation in 2013 during her last year at AMA University where she studied business informatics. She had started her sporting career in wheelchair basketball before trying her hand at discus, javelin and shotput.
She had participated in the Grand Prix series in 2019 landing three medals – gold in discus, silver in javelin and bronze in shotput.
“This time I am aiming for gold in all three,” said Alomari. “I hope we will all achieve the results that we want and, more importantly than achieving medals, we all get the qualifications we need to compete together in Paris and bring pride to the kingdom.”
For details, @bahrainnpc on Instagram.
