Sheikh hits out at UAE teenagers

Sheikh Ahmed bin Hasher complains at the lack of sporting culture in the country and says more effort is needed.

The 2004 gold medalist Sheikh Ahmed bin Hasher, representing theUnited Arab Emirates, takes part in the men's double trap training session at Clay Target Field in Beijing.

The UAE's only Olympic gold medal winner believes Emirati teenagers must change their ways if they are to follow him to glory. "I feel sorry for the young generation," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Hasher. "You look at them, they are overweight at the age of 14 or 15. They just go the malls, drive their cars. What else? That's the problem. They are not educated when it comes to sports."

Sheikh Ahmed, a member of the UAE Olympic team for the past three Games, also took a swipe at the UAE's schools and complained that there was a lack of sporting culture in the country. "How can sport succeed here when schools don't have sports," said Sheikh Ahmed, echoing the words of the secretary general of the UAE Olympic committee Ibrahim Abdul Malik. "In my days, you had to pass sports lessons in exams.

"Look at the Dubai marathon. How many locals took part? Nobody wants to get up at four in the morning and warm-up. "All these things need to change if we hope to be winning medals at the Olympics." Sheikh Ahmed was particularly scathing of the authorities when it came to his specialist sport, shooting. He urged the authorities to act fast if they wanted to save the sport of shooting in the UAE. Sheikh Ahmed, the 2004 Athens Olympic double-trap gold medallist, was unable to repeat his feat in Beijing, finishing seventh. He had announced his retirement from the sport even before the start of competition, unhappy with the way it was being administered in the country. He accused the UAE Shooting Federation of failing to capitalise on his Athens success. "We need to be asking how the country has benefited from my achievements," said the 45-year-old multiple World Cup winner.

"There is no club, there is no young generation coming up... there is nothing. "I don't think there is a future for shooting in this country unless a good foundation is established. "If you get a dead federation like our federation, the sport is dead. They are not willing to put their hands up and say, 'hey, we have not done anything'. "People say, 'oh, you always complain and fight'. No, I am not fighting. I am saying the truth. If I don't speak the truth for the sake of my country, what do I have to say then?

"If someone out there is going to get hurt, it is their problem. I am just speaking the truth. It is not personal - it is about the country. Nobody should take this personally." Sheikh Ahmed pointed out to the skeletal facilities available at the Nad al Sheba shooting club, where he practised for Beijing. "This is not the kind of club where an Olympic athlete trains," he said. It faces the east, when it should be facing the west. You come in the mornings the sun is in your eyes.

"You come in the afternoon and there is a lot of back wind, which raises the target by three or four metres. Tell me how can you practise here for competitions? "We don't have a cafeteria, we don't have a clubhouse, we don't have a gym or a massage room. You need a small compact club with good management and coaches. You cannot drive all the way here to train and then drive all the way to the end of Jumeirah to have a massage."

Josh Lakatos, Sheikh Ahmed's coach at Beijing, was also disappointed with the lack of facilities available in the UAE for shooters. "I was here 10 years ago and I come back now, there is not much of a change," said the American, who won the trap silver at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. "This range [the Nad al Sheba shooting club] has not changed an iota, except that all the greens have been bleached out.

"I don't know what more the UAE need. They had the gold last time. I don't feel the country did as much with Ahmed's accomplishment. They could have learned so much from him by now. They could have really promoted the sport and turned it into something really large. "There are a couple of shooters who have done well, but for the most, there has not been much progress. There are still lots of people who can shoot, but it does seem more recreational than professional.

"The UAE has talent. Somebody needs to organise it. They need to have team trials, like everyone else. There is no reason why they cannot go on and win medals. "I know the interest is there and there is a lot of talk, but talk doesn't produce medals." Sheikh Ahmed believes some of the shooters have themselves to blame for their lack of progress, with their lack of seriousness in training and unprofessional attitude.

"The people who had the chance to play the game are their own bosses, their own leader and their own coaches," he said. "You cannot talk about what they are doing - they know everything. "They are not willing to face the truth and say, 'it is our mistake. We have to improve our technique'. "Today they are not in a good mood. Next day they are sleeping so they could not come for practise. The third day, you will be standing for 10 minutes as they talk on the phone. The fourth day, the phone will be ringing while they are shooting.

"I don't think people realise how hard you have to work to reach that top level." As reported last week in The National, Abdul Malik feels there is a lot of hard work to be done if the UAE are going to become a force in world sport. "The Emirati youth has little interest in sport compared to young people in other countries, with the exception of football," he said. "The life of the people has changed. Emiratis have a soft and easy lifestyle. But sport is not easy - it is hard.

"We have also not had a good policy for building sports in schools. This is incredibly important. If sport is to become a part of the national culture we must get children into it from an early age, so they grow up with it."