They may be competing against each other for individual recognition, but swimmers can still do banter just as well as any team sportsman.
Tiago Venancio, one of three Dubai-based swimmers who are targeting Olympic qualification at a test event in London this week, was in faux diva-mode at their final training session before departure at the weekend.
"Can't we go to a warmer pool to do this - this water's not even cold, it is freezing," the Portuguese swimmer complained to any one of his Hamilton Aquatics stablemates that would listen.
"It'll be all right - just don't get your shoulders under," he was told, plainly. There are a few reasons why that method for combating the cold might not work for an elite swimmer.
Admittedly, it is not yet summer in Dubai. But the prevailing conditions are hardly akin to March in London, either.
Temperatures have been unseasonably high in England's capital over the past week, but the warm-snap is not going to last.
Lows of 3°C are forecast for tomorrow. A touch colder than Raffles South Campus in Dubai, then, even when the Burj Al Arab is casting a shadow.
The weather is unlikely to be the only thing that will provide a sharp reality check for the three Olympic hopefuls when they compete at the swimming championships in England's capital.
That dream, the one about competing in the London Olympics, is never going to seem more real than when they mount the starting blocks in competition this week.
These championships are the first time the new National Aquatics Centre have been used for competition, ahead of the Games this summer.
Many of the world's leading swimmers will be there, either laying down markers ahead of the big event, shooting for automatic "A" standard qualifying times, or jostling for a place near the front of the queue of "B" standard times. It is the litmus test they have all been waiting for.
"It hasn't hit me yet, but I am sure that will change as soon as I see the pool and the other competitors," Velimir Stjepanovic, 18, said before flying out of the UAE.
"I'm sure there will be nerves, but sometimes nervousness is a good thing. It is important to feel nerves. If it is not too much, it will help you out in the end."
Nerves, maybe, but he is unlikely to feel completely overawed. He competed in front of 7,000 people at the World Championships in Shanghai last year, and he is starting to enjoy performing on this stage.
Despite the fact he competes for Serbia, Stjepanovic is a fully-qualified local hero. His family moved to the UAE from the former Yugoslavia 25 years ago when his father landed an engineering job in the Emirates.
He was born in Abu Dhabi, on account of the fact his mother felt more comfortable with a Serbian doctor based in the capital during pregnancy, but has lived in Dubai his whole life.
English is his first language, but he is adept enough at the tongue of his parents that he can converse with his national team colleagues, such as Miroslav Cavic, the Serbian who finished just a millisecond behind Micheal Phelps in one final in Beijing four years ago.
"I'm not perfectly fluent, but I can speak normally," says Stjepanovic, who hopes to study business management and finance at Middlesex University once his singularly-storied gap year comes to an end.
Only seven swimmers in the 70-man list for tomorrow's heats of the 200-metre butterfly have a better entry time than the former Jumeirah College schoolboy's personal best of 1 minute, 57.40 seconds.
The Olympic qualifying standard for the event is set at 1:56.85, so he does not need to better his PB by much to be guaranteed entry to the Games.
"He is a product of Dubai," said Chris Tidey, the former Great Britain swimmer who has been Stjepanovic's mentor for the past six years, in his role of managing director Hamilton Aquatics. "He is top 10 in the world. That shows what can be achieved here."
The teenaged Serbian's progress mirrors that of the sport in this country. The UAE has minimal pedigree in swimming, even though Obaid Al Jasmi, the leading Emirati swimmer, has been to the last two Olympics on wild-card invitations.
Not so long ago the facilities for the sport were meagre. However, more pools have been built in recent times, including government-funded ones, such as the Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Sports Complex off the Dubai Bypass Road, constructed for the 2010 World Short Course championships.
The private sector has contributed its share, too, thanks to the increased number of schools which has followed the population growth of the UAE.
Hamilton Aquatics, who have 20 full-time staff looking after more than 1,000 registered swimmers at their academy, have access to 17 25m pools, as well as the 50m pool at Gems World Academy in Dubai.
Not that the facilities on their own create champions.
"At Loughborough in England, before they got a 50-metre pool they were still churning out Olympians," Tidey said. "They only had a 25-yard pool, and that had four lanes.
"In my opinion, it is about the environment that is around them. It doesn't matter if the facilities are not ideal, it is the environment you put around them which has to be ideal."
pradley@thenational.ae
THE SPECS
Jaguar F-Pace SVR
Engine: 5-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Power: 542bhp
Torque: 680Nm
Price: Dh465,071
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
more from Janine di Giovanni
The biog
Name: Fareed Lafta
Age: 40
From: Baghdad, Iraq
Mission: Promote world peace
Favourite poet: Al Mutanabbi
Role models: His parents
Best Academy: Ajax and Benfica
Best Agent: Jorge Mendes
Best Club : Liverpool
Best Coach: Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
Best Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker
Best Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Best Partnership of the Year Award by SportBusiness: Manchester City and SAP
Best Referee: Stephanie Frappart
Best Revelation Player: Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid and Portugal)
Best Sporting Director: Andrea Berta (Atletico Madrid)
Best Women's Player: Lucy Bronze
Best Young Arab Player: Achraf Hakimi
Kooora – Best Arab Club: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)
Kooora – Best Arab Player: Abderrazak Hamdallah (Al-Nassr FC, Saudi Arabia)
Player Career Award: Miralem Pjanic and Ryan Giggs
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
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Three ways to boost your credit score
Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
1. Make sure you make your payments on time;
2. Limit the number of products you borrow on: the more loans and credit cards you have, the more it will affect your credit score;
3. Don't max out all your debts: how much you maximise those credit facilities will have an impact. If you have five credit cards and utilise 90 per cent of that credit, it will negatively affect your score.
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Day 2, Dubai Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Pakistan’s effort in the field had hints of shambles about it. The wheels were officially off when Wahab Riaz lost his run up and aborted the delivery four times in a row. He re-measured his run, jogged in for two practice goes. Then, when he was finally ready to go, he bailed out again. It was a total cringefest.
Stat of the day – 139.5 Yasir Shah has bowled 139.5 overs in three innings so far in this Test series. Judged by his returns, the workload has not withered him. He has 14 wickets so far, and became history’s first spinner to take five-wickets in an innings in five consecutive Tests. Not bad for someone whose fitness was in question before the series.
The verdict Stranger things have happened, but it is going to take something extraordinary for Pakistan to keep their undefeated record in Test series in the UAE in tact from this position. At least Shan Masood and Sami Aslam have made a positive start to the salvage effort.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Walls
Louis Tomlinson
3 out of 5 stars
(Syco Music/Arista Records)
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
PROFILE OF INVYGO
Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
Emirates Cricket Board Women’s T10
ECB Hawks v ECB Falcons
Monday, April 6, 7.30pm, Sharjah Cricket Stadium
The match will be broadcast live on the My Sports Eye Facebook page
Hawks
Coach: Chaitrali Kalgutkar
Squad: Chaya Mughal (captain), Archara Supriya, Chamani Senevirathne, Chathurika Anand, Geethika Jyothis, Indhuja Nandakumar, Kashish Loungani, Khushi Sharma, Khushi Tanwar, Rinitha Rajith, Siddhi Pagarani, Siya Gokhale, Subha Srinivasan, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish
Falcons
Coach: Najeeb Amar
Squad: Kavisha Kumari (captain), Almaseera Jahangir, Annika Shivpuri, Archisha Mukherjee, Judit Cleetus, Ishani Senavirathne, Lavanya Keny, Mahika Gaur, Malavika Unnithan, Rishitha Rajith, Rithika Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Shashini Kaluarachchi, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi, Vaishnave Mahesh
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
BRIEF SCORES
England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)
(J Bairstow 63, T Westley 59, J Root 50; K Maharaj 3-50)
South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)
Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Blah
Started: 2018
Founder: Aliyah Al Abbar and Hend Al Marri
Based: Dubai
Industry: Technology and talent management
Initial investment: Dh20,000
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 40
More coverage from the Future Forum
SPECS
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