Women shine at Fazza Championship for Shooting

New pioneering training programme to encourage Emirati women shooters to be launched soon

Dubai, 30 January, 2014: The Fazza Championship for Shooting in Nad Al-Sheba has attracted a strong representation of women shooters from the GCC with a total of 15 competitors including a large number of Kuwaitis. Increasing numbers of women are taking up these traditional activities that were in the past totally dominated by men.

The championship organisers have also announced plans to encourage more Emirati women to take up the sport with a proposal in place to establish an exclusive training program for women in the near future.

Explaining the new initiative, Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammad bin Hasher Al Maktoum, Olympic shooter and Head of the Organising Committee of the Fazza Championship for Shooting in the Schuetzen Category said: “Despite the strong number of women participants this year, we still do not have a programme designed to attract more women who would like to take up the sport at a professional level.

“As a result we have been exploring the idea of initiating an exclusive training program led by a professional trainer to train Emirati women in the art of weaponry and hope to announce the programme in the coming months.”

Emirati shooter Fatimah Mohammed Ali has been a professional shooter for four years and is the only woman from the UAE participating as a member of the Nad Al-Sheba (NAS) team.

She says: “I enjoy professional shooting and have a dream of representing my country at the local and international level. Professional shooting is filled with the element of challenge and it is very rewarding to share a competitive platform with men. The shooters at this Championship are extremely motivated which gives the competition an even more exciting dimension.”

Now in its fifth year, the Fazza Championship for Shooting has been attracting interest from across the Arab world, including the neighbouring GCC, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. A total of 200 participants enrolled this year, with Kuwaiti and Emirati participants competing in a fiercely competitive and professional manner