Maryam Al Shamsi

With the summer well and truly here and most of the major sports The National covers having stopped until the temperatures cool, my main focus has continued to be on feature stories rather than live events.

But I did get to deal with a live event again on Sunday and it brought up some real challenges

Writing stories on the spot and coming up to the story within few hours is still a struggle for me. It takes time and practice unlike profile stories.

The challenges I faced on Sunday at the Dubai Sports World opening was to first speak to Saeed Harib, secretary general of the Dubai Sports Council, which was difficult as the other media were packed around him and it was not easy to get close by him.

I finally got to ask him one question which led to him giving me some good answers proving patience does pay off.

Another challenge was balancing my work with the needs of the staff photographer Lee Hoagland, who was shooting the event with me at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

I had to tell him about what I planned to write in order for his photos to be relevant to my story

While at the same time I was juggling to also try to approach Thomas Lund, Secretary Badminton World Federation, a former badminton player, he was very humble and easy to talk with, as well as a very talkative person.

I must admit I did not know too much about Lund before Sunday but I had researched him and that made it easier to ask him questions.

So, after I was done with my interviews, it was almost time for Iftar. I went to sit in a restaurant and write my story, as quickly as I could before my deadline.

But there was no Wi-Fi to send my story. I roamed around the area asking for Wi-Fi but there was none, so I jumped from restaurant to cafe’s and back to restaurants and all of the places did not provide Wi-Fi or they were closed.

Eventually I did find a place that offered it, but the connection was very weak and it took time for me to try to send the story, though it did finally go through, and well before deadline.

So, it was a stressful last few hours but it did again remind me of the importance of leaving plenty of time to get my work done, to allow for problems like no Wi-Fi, and to be organised.

malshamsi@thenational.ae