An exciting final day of badminton at the IWAS World Games Sharjah 2019 saw the UAE’s Mohamed Ahmed Alzarooni bag three gold medals while India and Thailand shared the honors coming away with 9 medals each : four Gold, three Silver and two Bronze.
The finals were close encounters and deserved a much larger audience than was present on the day. It was a great day for the UAE with Mohamed Ahmed Alzarooni stamping his authority on the Wheelchair Mens Singles, Mixed Doubles and Mens Doubles events to bag a treble of Gold Medals. It bodes well for the future of Para Badminton in the UAE.
With Para Badminton included for the first time at the Tokyo 2020 Para-Olympic Games, para-athletes will be now setting their sights on gaining ranking points at the 2nd Fazza - Dubai Para Badminton International 2019 to be held in April.
The IWAS World Games Sharjah 2019 concluded with a glittering medals award ceremony - a fitting tribute to the athletes and their support staff. The event was managed by UAE Badminton to the highest standards. Apart from the Match Referee, Mr. Heng Ha Neoh from Malaysia, all other technical officials were provided locally by UAE Badminton.
Their performance came in for high praise from John Shearer, Development Manager, Badminton World Federation who said, "While UAE Badminton Federation is still very young in its history, it is performing as a well-established, organised and professional association….. This was also well reflected by the quality of the competition, sports presentation and professionalism of the volunteers throughout the event. We can clearly see that compared to other sports in the IWAS Games, badminton was SPECIAL and will be talked about in a very positive way!"
