The main part of my time with sport this week was attending the International Conference of Sports at Emirates Palace, which was under the patronage of Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak.
Watching Sheikha Fatima, the most prominent female in the sport industry in the UAE, speak about female sports on Monday was inspiring for me and made me also think a lot about the career I myself am looking to go into as journalism in this country is still largely perceived as a man’s world.
The two-day conference was a great experience however it was somehow tricky to pinpoint stories as there was so much going on with so many speakers.
A story I had to target was to talk to Marion Bartoli, a French tennis player who retired from the sport in 2013 just a few weeks after she had won Wimbledon.
I did have a general idea on who she is, but to ensure I was ready to talk to her I had to spend time researching her to understand her background better.
Bartoli was very cooperative and sweet when I did get to talk to her and example praised the Gulf region on how sports for women is getting stronger.
It is an intricate process to get to speak to a high profile athlete, such as Bartoli, at an event like this, and I learnt the importance of planning in advance as you have to be quick with your questions and straight to the point to get the best quotes out of them, as you can never be sure how long you have.
In this case we only had a few minutes with Bartoli and while it was disappointing not to get longer, I still got a lot of good material out of my time with her thanks to being prepared and having learnt about her background.
Overall I learnt a lot from the experience, most importantly making sure I am on time for events so I can be organised and ready for whatever happens.
No one said sports journalism is easy, and the learning process takes time to build up.
I am hatching out of my shell and am becoming more assertive with what story I want to get, and I am sure my confidence will grow even more in the coming weeks with more experience.
mashamsi@thenational.ae
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