DUBAI, 20th March 2017: The classification of athletes and schedule of events was finalized at the Technical Meeting held on Sunday 19th March under the auspices of the World Para Athletics (formerly International Paralympic Committee) by the local organizing committee of the 9thFazza World Para Athletics Championship – Dubai 2017 being held at the Dubai Club for the Disabled from 20th to 23rd March commencing at 4.00pm each day.

Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council (DSC), the season-opening World Para Athletics Dubai Grand Prix which has attracted 386 athletes from 41 countries, is being organized and supervised by the Dubai Club for the Disabled with the support of their strategic partners Dubai Sports Council, World Para Athletics (formerly International Paralympic Committee), the General Authority for Youth and Sports Welfare (GAYSW), and the UAE Paralympic Committee.

Hosts UAE have the largest number of 48 athletes from among the 41 countries namely Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Bahrain, Czech Republic, Egypt, Fiji, Zambia, Britain, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Latvia, Libya, Moldova, Macedonia, Namibia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Samoa, Singapore, Switzerland, Slovakia, Sweden, Tonga, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

The Technical Meeting held in the presence of heads of delegations of all participating countries was chaired by Ahmed Al Hammadi, Chairman of the Technical Committee in the organizing committee of the Dubai Grand Prix.

Al Hammadi welcomed all foreign delegates at the beginning of the meeting before underlining the universal procedures that are adopted for classification of disabled athletes to ensure integrity, transparency and equality among the participants.

“We wish everyone a pleasant and happy stay in the United Arab Emirates and hope all of your dreams and expectations in the Fazza World Para Athletics Championship being held in Dubai for the ninth year opens the doors for sports stars with disabilities from all around the world to gain ranking points and qualify to participate and compete in the World Para Athletics Championship to be held in London this summer,” he said.

Al Hammadi stressed that the championship week is not just about competition but as host nation they wanted to ensure all the participants returned home with pleasant memories of Dubai.

“We have drawn up a comprehensive program since the participation of a large number of elite World Para athletes and Paralympic champions reaffirms Dubai as a Centre of Excellence for Disabled Athletes and the important position the competition occupies in the calendar of World Para Athletics. I hope everyone, including our Emirati athletes, make use of this opportunity to earn ranking points from this tournament,” said Al Hammadi.

The 9th World Para Athletics Dubai Grand Prix is the first major international meeting since the Paralympic Games were held in Brazil last September and provides the first opportunity to see many of the world’s top Para athletes back in action since Rio 2016.

The Fazza World Para Athletics Championship in Dubai is the first of a series of nine Grand Prix taking place around the world this year as preparations for the London 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in July.

High standards

A technical delegate Ben Vroom lauded the stringent measures and high regulatory standards followed by the local organizing committee.

“Dubai is considered a model in the application of international standards in all organizational and technical procedures. The classification of players were done with speed and accuracy, to ensure the tournament is conducted smoothly and making it the most looked forward event each year,” he said.

“The participation of world champions for the Dubai Grand Prix is a vote of confidence on the organizing ability to host Fazza Championships for the Disabled in general and Dubai to attract the most talented Para Athletes in the world who are hungry to achieve success,” he added.

Among the line up in Dubai will be 20 Paralympic gold medallists from Rio, including Mohammed Al Hammadi who won the UAE’s only track gold at Rio 2016 defeating world champion Walid Ktila of Tunisia in the T34 800m wheelchair race in a Games record time of 1 minute, 40.24 seconds.