Moment of truth for Emirati swimmers as history beckons

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  • Qualification goals: Mubarak Al Besher is eyeing direct entry to the World Championships.

    UAE national team assistant coach Mohamed El Zanaty believes his swimmers are ready to make history when they take to the Hamdan Sports Complex pool for the Dubai International Aquatic Championships this week.

    The competition, which starts today and runs until Saturday, April 26, is a FINA-sanctioned qualifying event for the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing this summer as well as next year’s World Aquatic Championships in Kazan.

    Should the swimmers achieve the qualification standards, it would be the first time in UAE history a swimmer will have managed to qualify for a Youth Olympics or Worlds without a wildcard.

    The UAE team returned from a high altitude training camp in Sierra Nevada, Spain, last week and El Zanaty said: “They’re feeling optimistic, they’re feeling something different and they trust what I told them, that ‘you’re going to try something different, something much better than before’. 

    “They saw a lot of swimmers and a lot of good sportsmen there at the camp and you can see their mentality is a bit different now. Hopefully, they will translate this camp into results this week.

    “It [camp] was the first time for the UAE swimmers to undergo high altitude training and we’d like to see how they will perform this week. 

    “The training was good, they felt good, it was even easier than expected. The younger swimmers had some difficulties in the first five days until they adapted to the high altitude.”

    Of the junior swimmers, Yaaqoub Al Saadi (backstroke) and Ali Al Kaabi (butterfly) hope to qualify for Nanjing, while breaststroker Mubarak Al Besher and backstroker Mohammed Al Ghaferi are hoping to make it to Kazan next year.

    On whether the swimmers are feeling extra pressure to perform well on home soil, El Zanaty said: “It’s a double-edged sword. They are motivated to compete in their home country, but also there’s a lot of pressure because they feel they must qualify as they are at home. They have the chance, they went to the training camp, so they’re a bit afraid to lose all the things they’ve done before; they want to qualify. 

    “Captain Ayman Saad (executive director of the UAE Swimming Federation) is really putting a lot of hopes on them and motivating them, both financially and emotionally. If they qualify they will get good prize money, good recognition and they’ll be up for more training camps in the future. So it’s a good deal for them.”

    Almost 800 swimmers will take part in the competition this week including Hungarian siblings Evelyn and David Verrasztó, who are both former European champions.

    Dubai-based Olympian Velimir Stjepanovic is also in action as he gears up for this summer’s European Aquatics in Berlin. The 20-year-old Serb will be swimming the 200m, 400m, 800m freestyle along with his signature event, the 200m butterfly.

    “Leading up to the European Championships I’m going to be stepping up the training and this week is no exception. So I’m going to be on quite a high volume. I haven’t seen the start list so I don’t know who is going to be there. I don’t expect any PBs, I expect to just give it my all and whatever happens, happens,” said Stjepanovic.

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