UAE’s Lamia Al Farsi targets Youth Olympics after clinching gold in Turkey

UAE’s Lamia Al Farsi targets Youth Olympics after clinching gold in Turkey

Dubai: UAE’s Lamia Tariq Malallah is targeting a place in the Youth Olympics after achieving a ‘great honour’ of representing the country in the Besiktas JK Cup in Istanbul over the weekend and capping it with a gold medal in her first international competition since the Covid-19 pandemic. “It’s a great honour to be the first Emirati to be nominated as a national gymnast. I wanted to bring more glory to the country,” Lamia said after her gold medal-winning performance. The 11-year-old, who has been nominated by the UAE General Authority of Sports and UAE National Olympic Committee, to represent the UAE, faced a big test from competitors from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kuwait and the hosts Turkey. It only got harder when she had to compete against stronger rivals after the organisers had merged both years 2010 and 2011 A categories. Undeterred by the challenge on hands, Lamia competed against 14 other rivals in ribbon, hoop, ball and clubs with many of them picking ribbon as their choice of apparatus. Lamia scored a total of 21.100 to finish first in while her Turkish component Dila Yilmaz in 2010 age group placed second with a score of 16.100. Her coach Polina Averina