Lamia impresses with gold medal in France

Lamia Tariq Malallah Al Farsi is making rapid strides in a very short span of time. The golden girl of UAE, who is also the country's youngest Rhythmic Gymnast, sets new benchmarks every time she participates in an event. The petite girl, who turned six in May, made headlines recently by bagging the gold medal in the Emirates Cup held in Dubai. Her achievement, from among a large field of gymnasts from across Europe and other GCC countries, came in the presence of 2016 Olympic champion Margarita Mamun.

Two months down the line and the little lass is creating ripples again - this time in France. Yes, the International School of Choueifat student battled bouts of vomiting on her way to her first-ever international gold medal in the Senior B category of the 4th Open GR Azur International Rhythmic Gymnastics Tournament which was held in Nice, on Sunday.

Speaking from France her elated mother Malak Tariq Al Farsi, who has been Lamia's guiding force, put all her daughter's achievements down to hard work and dedication. "Lamia has really trained hard the past four months. Come pain, illness or tiredness, even during the Holy month of Ramadan she would not skip a class," said the proud mother.

However for her daughter to achieve bigger goals, Malak feels the General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare (GAYSW) and the Dubai Sports Council (DSC) need to do more for the sport.

"The authorities must be more supportive if this sport has to be promoted among locals. Rhythmic gymnastics is new to the region so it needs all the help. And, since Lamia is the youngest Emirati competing professionally and representing her country within UAE and abroad, the authorities must support her by way of sponsoring her.

"So far it's been only us, representing the UAE on our own," she confided.

Calling for a separate federation for gymnastics, Malak feels it is time the authorities pushed for one.

"Due to the non-existence of a separate federation a license cannot be issued to Lamia," she cited.

"A license is needed for gymnasts in certain countries if they want to participate. Luckily at Nice they accepted her but not everywhere will they accept her.

"Also each country takes a judge along who sits on the judging panel but since we don't have one - as the IFG (International Federation of Gymnastics) needs the local federation to issue a judge - it becomes a liability for us as there will be rival clubs or participants who will undermine our scoring during competitions since we don't have our own judge," Malak said.

Despite the drawbacks, a confident Malak claims that Lamia has set her sights on winning a gold medal at the 2023 Youth Olympic Games.

"Our goal is to prepare her for the Youth Olympics over the next five years and hopefully by then there would be a separate gymnastics federation set up to assist in putting together a national team," added Malak.

Lamia represents the Dubai Youth Olympic School and is trained by former world champion Ksenia Dzalaghaniya.

Malak feels Ksenia can help set up the federation as that is her aim for the UAE.

If the concerned authorities come forward to help the sport then it won't be long when UAE will produce many more Lamias in the near future.

Source: Khaleej Times