DUBAI, 16th April 2017: The Fazza Bisfed (Boccia International Sports Federation) Regional Open Championship – Dubai 2017 which has attracted 56 elite players from 10 countries under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Sports Council, began with the Teams and Doubles events at the Dubai Club for the Disabled on Saturday 15th April.
It is being organized and supervised by the Dubai Club for the Disabled with the support of their strategic partners Dubai Sports Council, Bisfed, the General Authority for Youth and Sports Welfare (GAYSW) and the UAE Paralympic Committee, and will continue until Wednesday 19th April.
The doubles or pairs competitions will be held in the BC3 and BC4 categories with all 10 participating nations facing off each other during the first two days of the Fazza Bisfed Regional Open Championship – Dubai 2017.
The participating countries are Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Singapore, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and hosts UAE who are fielding 13 players. The Fazza Bisfed Regional Open Championship – Dubai 2017 is a qualifier to achieve ranking points for the forthcoming World Championships and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
There will be two sessions on the first day followed by the official Opening Ceremony while on Sunday 16th April, there will be three sessions with the competition beginning at 10.00am. The second session starts at 2.00pm and the final session at 4.40pm.
Classification
The classification of Boccia players, program schedule and draw for the championship was finalized at the technical meeting of the organizing committee on Friday night at the Dubai Club for the Disabled which was attended by HE Majid Abdullah Al Usaimi, Director of Fazza Championships for the Disabled, representatives of Bisfed and delegates of participating teams.
At the outset of the meeting, HE Majid Abdullah Al Usaimi welcomed everyone on behalf of the organizing committee and wished the participants success in the competition.
“We are pleased to see a large number of participants from around the world assembled here to display their skills in Boccia because the aim of organizing such championship is to realize our dream to encourage people with disabilities to engage in sports. Our sincere gratitude goes to His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Sports Council, for his support to have a variety of sports like powerlifting, athletics, wheelchair basketball, archery and specially Boccia in the Fazza Championships for the Disabled,” he said.
HE Majid Abdullah Al Usaimi explained that the main objective of conducting these tournaments is to develop all aspects of the sport by having workshops for players, coaches, referees and other officials, making UAE as the hub for the development of disabled sports and support people with disabilities in all areas of life in general. “Here in the UAE, we always accept challenges and strive to transform the impossible into reality. We take great pleasure in hosting this tournament and reap the success of it. We affirm that our core objective is see your participation and provide all facilities for players to compete in a happy and positive environment throughout the championship,” he said.
Martin Lam, Secretary-General of Bisfed, the governing body for Boccia, lauded the role played by Dubai and the UAE towards people with disabilities.
“When Dubai was selected to host this tournament two years ago during the meetings held in Mexico, we realized that we're doing the right thing and never hesitated to accept it. And here we are now reaping the fruits of success through participation in greater numbers. The presence of new players and countries in each successive tournament, despite the difficulty of the participation of a large number of countries and players in a sport that poses a major challenge for practitioners of Boccia, makes us completely satisfied with the size of the presence here this year,” he said.
UAE Boccia star Raees Al Falasi said this was a world class event because the best players in the sport come from Asia from countries like Thailand. Korea has the second largest team of nine players followed by Singapore (8), Hong Kong (7) and Chinese Taipei (6).