DUBAI // Ahmed Al Kamali has promised to take UAE athletics to greater heights in the coming four years as he starts a third successive term as UAE Athletics Federation (UAEAF) president.
Al Kamali defeated Mohammed Juma bin Hindi by 10 votes to eight in the election on October 3 to become the first president to be voted to a third term consecutive term in the UAEAF.
“I am really proud to be the first president of the federation to be elected for three consecutive terms,” Al Kamali said. “Of course, this trust bestowed in me is a great responsibility as well, so we have a lot of work to do in the coming years.”
Over the past eight years under his watch, athletes from the UAE have returned home with 242 medals from the various GCC, Arab, West Asian, Asian and international meets. While happy with that tally, Al Kamali is determined to double that haul before the end of his third term in office.
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“We are really happy to have achieved that figure in the past eight years, but now we are looking to reach the tally of 500 before the end of this current four-year term in October, 2020,” he said.
“We will have plenty of events to achieve that target. We have about 18 competitions at the GCC, Asia and international level over the coming 12 months. Multiply that number by four, and we have nearly 80 or 90 events in four years, including the 2020 Olympic Games, to achieve our targets.”
Al Kamali, a member of the all-powerful nine-member International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) Council, has also made another promise to the country.
“I have also promised that by the end of this term, we will have an Emirati vice-president in the Arab athletics federation, vice-president in the Asian athletics federation and vice president in the IAAF,” Al Kamali said.
“So I will be contesting for the post of the IAAF vice-president in the 2019 elections. I stood in the elections for the IAAF Council last year and polled the highest votes, 169. I had got the highest votes of 137 in the 2011 Council elections as well. So my next dream is to be the vice-president.”
Al Kamali believes he has the right team alongside him at the UAEAF to achieve those dreams. Nasir Al Mamari has been named as the vice-president, while Salah Mohammed Hasan has been named as the general secretary of the federation.
Ali Bin Zayed will be managing the finances of the federation, while Ali Khamis has been appointed as the manager of the national team and Sahar Al Obad will be heading the women’s committee.
“I am really happy with the team we have here,” Al Kamali said. “It’s a mix of young blood and experience and we will all be working together to achieve our goals in the coming four years.”
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