Arabian Gulf players left with that sick feeling



DUBAI // The Arabian Gulf may have retained much of the squad who battled nobly at the Dubai Rugby Sevens and the World Cup last season, but not everything has remained the same. The coach, Mike Lunjevich, resigned after March's World Cup and the vacancy was filled recently by another coach heralding from New Zealand, Shane Thornton. The 35-year-old Dubai Dragons winger is a sevens specialist and has based much of his training around what he learned from the famously remorseless New Zealand coach, Gordon Tietjens.

"He has a little streak of Tietjens in him," said Jonny MacDonald, the team's playmaker, whose business studies degree at Cardiff University is on hold for the weekend while he competes for the Arabian Gulf side. "At our sprints training we had people throwing up and I very nearly fainted a couple of times. "With that intensity comes a positive mentality, and he really keeps us going and praises us, which is good for us."

The vomiting has become a recurring theme. In fact, the players have been keeping a tally of who falls victim most often, with the winner being awarded some new training kit. Sean Hurley, the team captain, is top of the table. "I have worked my training around his [Tietjens] schedule, though not exactly what he does," said Thornton, who played sevens for Waikato, of his mentor's influence. "I've broken it down into what I think is good for players and what I think worked for me. It has worked with the boys and they are really racing forward."

@Email:pradley@thenational.ae Arabian Gulf's matches: 11.54am v Australia, 3.08pm v South Africa, 5.38pm v Wales

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Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)

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Innotech Profile

Date started: 2013

Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari

Based: Muscat, Oman

Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies

Size: 15 full-time employees

Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing 

Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now. 

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Company profile

Name: Infinite8

Based: Dubai

Launch year: 2017

Number of employees: 90

Sector: Online gaming industry

Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor

War and the virus
Other workplace saving schemes
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  • Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
  • National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
  • In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
  • Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.