Jawaher Al Qasimi Award reveals list of finalists

His Excellency Issa Hilal Al Hazami, Chairman of  Sharjah Sports Council (SSC) and Chairman of the Award’s Board of Trustees, expressed his happiness with the Award organisational level in its first session, especially at the level of interaction and participation from individuals and institutions, which reflects the importance and value of the Award, and the efforts made by all those affiliated with the Award since the beginning. 
His Excellency Issa Hilal Al Hazami noted that  work will continue without stopping to study the recommendations and visions developed by the committees, to develop the future features of the award in accordance with the vision of the wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah, Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Muhammad Al Qasimi.

His Excellency Issa Hilal Al Hazami extended his congratulations to all the candidates who reached the final stage of the competition, adding that the award achieved its promotional objectives as evidenced by the large number of files submitted, which emphasised the need to focus precisely on them during the sorting and evaluation stage and then the personal interviews stage, in order to come up with this list. The final nominations were decided by selecting three nominees from each category, so that one winner from each category would be honoured, with a total of eleven winners in addition to the Sports Personality of the Year at the closing ceremony.

The results of the final nominations for the main and sub-categories were as follows:
Sports Leadership Category: Nine candidates qualified in its three sub-categories.
Best Junior Athlete Category: which includes:
Candidate Ali Saleh Al Belushi, karate player at the Kalba Cultural and Sports Club, an international champion at the junior level and has won international gold medals, including the West Asian Championship.

Candidate Mabkhout Awaida Al Karbi, player of the Sharjah Equestrian and Racing Club, who achieved first place 26 times in a number of local tournaments, a gold medal in the final of the Arab Championship, and first place among Arabs in the Sharjah Ruler’s Cup.

Candidate Harib Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi,  jiu-jitsu player at  Sharjah Self-defence Sports Club, has won three gold medals in international tournaments and at the national team level, in addition to 15 gold medals in local tournaments.

Best Rising Athlete Category: It includes three nominees
Candidate Muhammad Sultan Al Yahyai, player of the Sharjah Equestrian and Racing Club, achieved six advanced positions, including first place in the international championship in Belgium and third place among the Arabs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Candidate, Aisha Saif Fahd, player in the  Chess and Culture Club for Sharjah Women, she achieved ten advanced positions at the state level, including four in first place and the UAE President’s Cup in the women’s category.

Candidate Rahma Khalid Al Shamsi, the bow and arrow player at Al Hamriyah Cultural and Sports Club, who achieved more than 17 achievements at the state level, including nine first places and a gold medal.

Best Young Athlete Category:
Candidate Rashid Abdullah Al Belushi, Spartan player at Al Hamriyah Cultural and Sports Club, participated in 50 local sports championships and four Spartan racing world championships in the UAE and the United States of America, and represented the UAE national team in the World Cup in Greece last year.

Candidate Mohammed Abdullah Al Qayed Al Hammadi, athletics player at Al Thiqa Club for the Disabled, achieved seven Asian Paralympic records registered to his name and has several medals in the Paralympic Games and the World Cup.

Candidate Sultan Ali Al Owais, a jiu-jitsu player at the Sharjah Self-Defense Sports Club,  ranked first Emirati at the global and Asian levels for the years 2022 and 2023. He is the first citizen of the Emirate of Sharjah to achieve the title and has achieved advanced positions in 54 international jiu-jitsu tournaments.

Future Sports Partners category: divided into seven subcategories, with three candidates in each category, bringing the total number of candidates to 21 candidates, and includes:
Best Activist in Sports Forums Category:
Candidate  Ahmed Salem Al Kaabi, football player at the Kalba Cultural and Sports Club. He has organised 54 different matches at the UAE level and has participated in a number of sporting events and member in different committees. He has also implemented a number of sporting initiatives with the participation of 2000 students.

Candidate Hamid Saleh Al Muhairi, a former Taekwondo player at the Sharjah Sports Club, gave a number of lectures on sports guidance and guidance to nearly 200 players and provided more than 1,500 volunteer hours as a guidance consultant. He published a book for personal and professional development entitled 45 Answers in Your Hands, issued by the National Media Council. 

Candidate Sultan Muhammad Al Yahyai, Director General of the Sharjah Equestrian and Racing Club, contributed to placing the Emirate of Sharjah on the international map in show jumping and Arabian horses with distinguished marks. He also contributed to the club’s members reaching 15,000 participants and qualifying for the World Cup seven times. He was the first to establish the Dubai International Arabian Horse Championship.

• Best Sports Opportunity Maker category:
- Candidate Muhammad Ahmed Al Kamali, member of the Board of Directors of the Sharjah International Marine Sports Club, founded Al Qudra Sports Services Company, establishing partnerships with more than 66 entities. He organized more than 223 events, with the number of beneficiaries of the sporting opportunities he created reaching more than 59,000 from various segments of society, including 41,000 from the Emirate of Sharjah.
Candidate Louay Saeed Al Naqbi, member of the Board of Directors of the Khorfakkan Club for the Disabled, was the first to introduce the game of goalball for the blind in the country and created the first team to represent the UAE national team. He also introduced Emirati women to the game of judo for the blind, making the first female player to win a silver medal for judo for the blind in the Gulf region.

Candidate Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al Owais, Chairman of the Sharjah Self-Defense Sports Club, led the sport of jiu-jitsu at the club to a historic achievement. During the five years, he achieved a total of (2418) sporting achievements, including (1359) global/international achievements, and he transformed five warehouses into gyms serving 10,000 beneficiaries.

• Best sports media influencer category:
- Candidate Adel Muhammad Al Hosani, a coach, lecturer and media personality, holds more than 30 training certificates in various sports and 950 sports motivational and educational publications on his page on the Instagram platform. He also has radio and television programs in cooperation with the Sharjah Broadcasting Authority.

Candidate Noura Sultan Al Marzouqi, a journalist and dentist, launched the “Live Healthy” initiative, from which 100 participants benefited, and she contributed to encouraging nearly 100 women to practice sports and change their lifestyle. She has three different memberships that contribute to the positive impact of the content.

Candidate Muhammad Omran Al Ali is an award-winning journalist in the media and community fields. He has covered and participated in 47 sporting events over the past three years and has five media memberships that contribute to the positive impact on the content.

Best Mentored Athlete Category:
Candidate Khudair Khafiani, trainer at the Sharjah Police Academy, gave 45 lectures from which 2,304 benefited. He created three curricula, five sports guides, a sports measurement and evaluation system, and Fartlek training to raise the efficiency of the respiratory system. He has 835 volunteer hours in the community.
- Candidate Sultan Hassan Al-Obaidly, a traveler and mountain trails official in the city of Khorfakkan, presented an advice and guidance program for mountaineering and adventure sports on the Al Sharqiya Channel from Kalba, and founded the East Coast Adventures Company for adventure sports, targeting 1,000 participants annually.
- Candidate Ali bin Muhammad Alawi, Taekwondo coach at the Sharjah Self-Defense Sports Club, trains athletes voluntarily at Sharjah Children’s Centers, and presents a series of training episodes via the Sharjah Channel. He received approximately 249 thousand views with a total of 25 episodes on the YouTube platform.

• Financially Supporting Institutions Category: Competing for it are:
- Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority, a government body that sponsors many events in the emirate, provided 700,000 dirhams in 2023 to sponsor tournaments and sports activities.
- Sharjah International Airport Authority, a government body that provides an annual budget estimated at 3 million dirhams to support sports tournaments and activities and has signed a sponsorship agreement with the Sharjah Club handball team from 2019 until now.
- The Murad Abdullah Murad Foundation, a private foundation with a financial support plan until 2025 for many initiatives, has provided an amount of 1,600,000 dirhams over the past five years to rehabilitate a dirt field to organize and sponsor the cricket tournament held for communities since 1989 to date, and to maintain the Khorfakkan Club stadium.

• Category of sports supporting institutions:
- University of Sharjah - Deanship of Student Affairs, a government entity keen to build annual plans to provide the sporting needs of all categories of the university family and segments of society in the emirate. It organized local, Arab, continental and international sports tournaments, events and festivals and included the inclusion of people with disabilities.
- Al-Hamriyah Region Municipality, a government entity that has a master strategic plan for 2023-2026 and has prepared programs for participation in sporting and community events, organization and sponsorship, and has allocated an amount of approximately 20,000 dirhams to implement the tournaments within three years.
- Sharjah Youth, a government institution under the umbrella of the Rubu’ Qarn Foundation to create leaders and innovators, has drawn up a strategic plan within the sports track linked to the strategic plan of the Sharjah Sports Council and the General Sports Authority, translated it into clear operational plans and works to discover talented people and provide clubs with them, and has allocated an amount of 147,000 dirhams in 2023 for some of these activities.

• Best sports family category:
- The family of candidate Hamad Ali Al-Karbi from the Sharjah Equestrian and Racing Club, an athletic family of four members, owns a horse stable, raises and produces jumping horses, and has won more than ten advanced positions in various competitions.
The family of the candidate, Maryam Abdulkarim Al-Mazmi, from the Sharjah Self-Defense Sports Club, is a sports family of seven members and is an independent family in applying the principles and practices of quality of life, as its sports activities diversified and it achieved 13 advanced positions in various competitions.
- The family of candidate Saif Mohammed Al-Zari Al-Shamsi, from the Sharjah Sports Club, is a sports family of nine individuals that achieved 14 advanced positions in various competitions, and also organized and participated in 14 sporting events such as the Basketball Championship.

3- Lifetime Achievement Category: Three candidates compete in it as follows:
- Candidate Thuraya Hamad Ahmed Al Zaabi, a javelin, shot put, and discus thrower, from the category of physically disabled, has been practicing the sport for 20 years. She has won 300 local and Gulf medals, 12 international medals, and 15 medals in European and regional championships.
- The candidate Sheikh Abdullah bin Majid Al Qasimi, President of the Sharjah Equestrian and Racing Club, has been practicing sports for 44 years. He founded the Sharjah Equestrian and Racing Club and established the first show jumping team, and founded the Emirates Horse Beauty Festival 25 years ago. He also works to attract international equestrian championships to be based in Sharjah
- Candidate Abdul Rahman Ibrahim Hassan Al Darmaki, an Emirati referee who has been practicing sports for 39 years, a first-class referee, a match observer in the UAE Professional League since 2009 and a match observer in the UAE Professional League since 2009.

4- Sports Personality of the Year category: which has created a breakthrough in the sports field. The winner will be announced during the closing ceremony, chosen by the award’s Board of Trustees.

It should be noted that the award’s Board of Trustees includes His Excellency Najla Abdullah Al Shamsi, His Excellency Dr. Abdullah Abdul Rahman bin Sultan, supervisor of the judging and evaluation committee, His Excellency Hanan Muhammad Al Mahmoud, supervisor of the Marketing and Communications Committee, His Excellency Khawla Jassim Al Sarkal, supervisor of the Media Committee, Wafa Abdullah, supervisor of the Technical Standards Committee, and Muhammad Ali bin Hammad. Supervisor of the Events and Public Relations Committee, and Bakhit Saeed Al-Qars, Rapporteur of the Board of Trustees.