MBR Creative Sports Award Congratulates UAE Team for Success at Tokyo Paralympic Games

Dubai - September 05, 2021:   Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Award, a Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiative, has congratulated the UAE contingent, who will return with three medals – a gold, a silver and a bronze – from the Tokyo Paralympic Games.

Abdulla Sultan Al Aryani, 51, put UAE on the Tokyo Paralympic Games’ list of gold-medal winners when he took top spot in the men's 50m SH1 rifle event on Friday. A two-time world champion, Al Aryani had also won gold in London in 2012, and his gold medal in Tokyo came after Mohamed Al Qayed had won bronze in the men's 100m T34. Al Qayed later added the men’s 800m T34 silver to his and UAE’s medal tally on Saturday.

Al Aryani had also won three silver medals at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, and with the gold on Friday, his tally of Paralympic medals has risen to five. Al Qayed, who had carried the UAE flag at the Tokyo Paralympic Games opening ceremony, also owns five now having won a silver and a bronze at the 2012 Games in London and the 800m gold at the 2016 Paralympic Games.

The MBR Creative Sports Award congratulated UAE’s two medal-winners, and the team in general, and saluted their efforts despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 in the lead up to the Games as well as in Tokyo itself, where stringent precautionary measures and protocols were in place for the safety of the athletes.
The Award has always paid great attention to Para Athletes and the Paralympic Games, providing them with support and encouragement by honouring them in every session of the Award. Besides Al Aryani and Al Qayed, the UAE team had included two other MBR Creative Sports Award winners – veteran powerlifter Mohammed Khamis, who was unable to add to his two Paralympic gold medals and a silver due to an unfortunate injury, and cyclist Ahmed Mubarak Al Mutaiwei.
In its 11th season now, the Award, which is one of the leading initiative of its kind in the world offering AED7.5 million in prize money, has been honouring Olympic and Paralympic champions since its inception in 2009.

The Board of Trustees of the Award decided to extend the window of nominations for the 11th edition of the Award to September 15 with the aim of giving an opportunity to athletes and federations, who have been successful at the Summer Olympics and the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, to send in their nominations. 
The winners will be honoured on January 9, 2022, at a glittering ceremony that will take place in the Expo 2020 district.