ABU DHABI // The UAE will be the first Arab country to host the World Women’s Bowling Championships when 200 of the best female bowlers from around the globe take part at Zayed Sports City’s Khalifa Bowling Centre next month.
The championships, from December 6-14, will see 10-pin bowlers from 35 countries compete for medals in the singles, doubles, trios and five-woman team, as well as the all events categories. Following these rounds, the Masters will take place where the top 16 bowlers in the tournament compete to be crowned overall champion.
Part of the UAE’s team is Sarah Thabet, who hopes to make up for lost time with the squad. As a teenager, she had the opportunity be part of the national team squad but she prioritised her studies above her passion for bowling.
She excelled in her exams and landed a job with the Government as a petro-physicist, but it is only now Thabet has found the time to get back into the sport she had loved as a child.
“I have been bowling for over eight years and that was mostly as a hobby,” she said.
“I used to go bowling with my mother every weekend and that’s how my passion for the sport developed.
“When some of the national team players asked me to join them I didn’t, because I always put my studies first. And as soon as I completed my studies and started working, I joined the team in 2013 ...”
Thabet travelled with the national team for the World Cup in Russia in 2013.
She won a silver medal in the doubles at the Arab Championship held in Dubai the same year, and a silver in the same discipline and two bronze medals in both the Masters and Team event at the Gulf Championship in Bahrain in 2014.
“This is my first time in the World Championships and my biggest competition after the World Cup,” she said Thabet.
“We have been in a camp two weeks ahead of the competition and hopefully ready to give our best.
“Competing in the World Cup was too overwhelming for me and as a result I got nervous. I was in the team for only two months.
“Now I am actually looking forward to meeting some of the players I may have met in Russia and this would give me the opportunity to pit my skills from the best in the world.”
UAE squad Khuloud Abu Qube, Hind Al Hammadi, Zainab Al Hammadi, Sarah Al Mulla, Rehma Al Sharqi, Sarah Thabet.
Schedule
December 6: Official practice and opening ceremony
December 7: Singles
December 8: Trios
December 9: Singles semi-finals and final, and Trios semi-finals and final.
December 10: Doubles and Doubles semi-finals.
December 11: Team.
December 12: Team semi-finals and final. All Events.
December 13: Masters
apassela@thenational.ae
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