The capital, Abu Dhabi, will host the seventh international artistic swimming championship for women, organized by Sportex Sports Services Company, on February 11 and 12 at the Mohammed bin Zayed Sports Complex, with the participation of a distinguished group of international clubs representing 11 countries including Hungary, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Singapore and Romania with representatives for the junior, senior, and masters ages.
The tournament is witnessing, for the first time since its inception, the largest historical event represented by the participation of four Arab countries, including the UAE, Egypt, Tunisia and Syria. Prior to this year’s competition, the Egypt was the only Arab country that participated in previous tournaments.
The number of participants is about 250 swimmers from European, Asian and African countries, which is a remarkable achievement. Ghada Kamal, the former coach of the Egyptian national team for 15 years, and the CEO of Sportex Sports Services Company, came to the Emirates 10 years ago, she started training with one girl over the course of 6 months, especially since this sport was not widespread at the popular level. With her persistence, determination, and faith in conveying the idea that this sport deserves recognition, Ghada Kamal has successfully brought the number of female swimmers now to 300, which contributed to the organization of this championship.
The Sportex Sports Academy, which was founded in 2017, is the first academy specialized in artistic swimming and the founder of this sport in the country. Success in this sport has resulted in the emergence of a number of academies, until their number has become five in the country.
Egypt was the only Arab country that embraced this sport, so Ghada Kamal’s goal, upon her arrival in the Emirates, was the continuous pursuit and redoubled efforts to spread this sport in all Arab countries. Thanks to her belief in her idea and abilities, she succeeded in obtaining official recognition for the sport of artistic swimming from the sports federations in each of the Emirates, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Jordan, and supported the girls to obtain membership in these federations. Through this championship, Ghada Kamal aspires to fulfill her dream of holding the first Arab championship in the history of artistic swimming.
After communicating with the UAE Swimming Federation, Ghada Kamal established the first technical swimming training academy in the Emirates, bringing the number at present to 5 specialized training academies. And she succeeded in her endeavors, from holding a local tournament for 10 girls only, to participating in the seventh international tournament to be held in the United Arab Emirates, 5 of which were held in Dubai, and this is the second tournament in Abu Dhabi.
Ghada Kamal explained that Abu Dhabi’s hosting of this distinguished tournament at the global level is a strong confirmation that the emirate includes amazing capabilities and is characterized by its embrace of everything that is new and creative, as it hosts every year more European and Asian countries in all events and various occasions, which confirms its position As an ideal and preferred destination for hosting tournaments of this level, and highlights its capabilities in terms of infrastructure and distinguished and safe hospitality services.
Ghada Kamal concluded by saying: “The academy aims to spread awareness about the sport of artistic swimming in particular and the need to pay attention to women’s sports in general and encourage them in the country to keep pace with the country’s plans to encourage the role of women and women’s sports. In the coming period, we aspire to hold more championships under the auspices of the Emirates Swimming Federation We also look forward to organizing training and refereeing sessions to increase the number of important elements of this unique sport.”
It is worth noting that artistic swimming is called by a number of names such as aqua ballet, artistic swimming, synchronized and plastic swimming and requires greater strength and ability than other swimmers. It also requires speed, flexibility and skill, in addition to the superior ability to perform in perfect synchronization with the music.
