In the words of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the Vice President and of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai: "Horse riding is more than merely sitting on a horse's back. It is nobility and chivalry."
Sheikha Latifa Al Maktoum embodies the spirit of those words as she gains ground in the world of equestrian sports. Ranked outside the top 1,000 in show jumping, she has shown grace and gallant to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, where she will be among the 79 riders taking part in the show jumping event.
She is the first Emirati woman to take part in an Olympic equestrian event and only the second Arab lady after Princess Haya bint al Hussein, who took part in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Sheikha Latifa qualified for the Games with a brilliant effort on the concluding day of the Qatar International Show Jumping Championship in March last year, clocking 47.72secs in the jump-off to book her ticket.
"I was under tremendous pressure in the first two rounds and it is always difficult to perform under pressure," said Sheikha Latifa after qualifying. "It wasn't an easy course, as we saw not many riders get through, but in the end all that matters is the qualifier for the Olympics and I have done it."
Since then, Sheikha Latifa has been training hard with single-minded devotion to give her dreams a shade of gold, silver or bronze. She said she even missedthe Pan Arab Games in Cairo last year to focus on the Olympics. Ibrahim Abdul Malik, the general secretary of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and general secretary of the General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare (GAYSW), is confident her efforts will pay-off when the individual jumping event starts on Aug 15.
"She has been preparing herself for a long time in France," said Malik. "She has been working very hard and participated in a couple of tough competitions.
"She is trying her best to improve her performances. She is working very hard to get a good result."
Luck will indeed play a crucial part. For show jumping is not the easiest of sport. It requires rider and horse be in perfect harmony as they clear the tricky obstacles and complete the course, with its many turns and change of directions, in the allotted time.
The rider needs a lot of patience and strength of endurance, for the sport can be physically demanding. He also needs to be one with his ride and show great tact and perfect understanding of the animal, for a refusal by the horse invites penalty points. The sport demands a high degree of preparation, training and readiness.
Sheikha Latifa has been equal to the challenge, showing great determination and tenacity as she worked hard with her excellent stallion, Kalaska de Semilly, in France over the last few months. She also competed in a few events in Germany, Holland and Belgium to fine-tune her preparations for the Games. And then, she also has the memories of the team bronze at the 2006 Doha Asian Games to give her confidence a boost.
Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa, the chairman of the UAE Equestrian Federation, has hailed the participation of Sheikha Latifa at the Beijing Olympics. "The UAE is proud of the participation of Sheikha Latifa and other UAE athletes at the Olympics," he told the Government news agency WAM. "We wholeheartedly wish them every success and good luck.
"Sheikha Latifa has worked hard, taken the lead and reached a level that is on par with the top riders of the world. It increases our pride that she has done this in jumping, which is known as one of the most difficult forms of equestrian sports."
Sultan Abdulla al Marzouqi, the secretary general of the Equestrian Federation, believes Sheikha Latifa's participation in the Olympics heralds a new era for the sport in the UAE.
"We are proud and happy to see the UAE flag fly high at the Olympics equestrian events," he said. "This is a great global sporting event and, whatever the outcome, we are quite satisfied with the progress we have made."
Malik believed the outcome could be good, if fortune smiled a little on Sheikha Latifa.
"With a bit of luck, I think she will win a medal," he said confidently. "I believe and I hope that she will get a good result."
@Email:arizvi@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
The biog
Favourite hobby: I love to sing but I don’t get to sing as much nowadays sadly.
Favourite book: Anything by Sidney Sheldon.
Favourite movie: The Exorcist 2. It is a big thing in our family to sit around together and watch horror movies, I love watching them.
Favourite holiday destination: The favourite place I have been to is Florence, it is a beautiful city. My dream though has always been to visit Cyprus, I really want to go there.
Company%20Profile
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
Superliminal%20
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Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Jiu-Jitsu World Tour Calendar 2018/19
July 29: OTA Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan
Sep 22-23: LA Convention Centre in Los Angeles, US
Nov 16-18: Carioca Arena Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Feb 7-9: Mubadala Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Mar 9-10: Copper Box Arena in London, UK
Maestro
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBradley%20Cooper%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBradley%20Cooper%2C%20Carey%20Mulligan%2C%20Maya%20Hawke%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Things Heard & Seen
Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton
2/5
25%20Days%20to%20Aden
%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20Michael%20Knights%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPages%3A%20256%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EAvailable%3A%20January%2026%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Neymar's bio
Total club appearances 411
Total goals scored 241
Appearances for Barca 186
Goals scored for Barca 105
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Bob%20Marley%3A%20One%20Love
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The%20specs%3A%202024%20Mercedes%20E200
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Teenage%20Mutant%20Ninja%20Turtles%3A%20Shredder's%20Revenge
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AL%20BOOM
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Civil%20War
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
SPECS
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The%20end%20of%20Summer
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
The%20specs%3A%20Taycan%20Turbo%20GT
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDual%20synchronous%20electric%20motors%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E1%2C108hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E1%2C340Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle-speed%20automatic%20(front%20axle)%3B%20two-speed%20transmission%20(rear%20axle)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETouring%20range%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E488-560km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh928%2C400%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EOrders%20open%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Company%20Profile
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What is an FTO Designation?
FTO designations impose immigration restrictions on members of the organisation simply by virtue of their membership and triggers a criminal prohibition on knowingly providing material support or resources to the designated organisation as well as asset freezes.
It is a crime for a person in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to or receive military-type training from or on behalf of a designated FTO.
Representatives and members of a designated FTO, if they are aliens, are inadmissible to and, in certain circumstances removable from, the United States.
Except as authorised by the Secretary of the Treasury, any US financial institution that becomes aware that it has possession of or control over funds in which an FTO or its agent has an interest must retain possession of or control over the funds and report the funds to the Treasury Department.
Source: US Department of State
What is 'Soft Power'?
Soft power was first mentioned in 1990 by former US Defence Secretary Joseph Nye.
He believed that there were alternative ways of cultivating support from other countries, instead of achieving goals using military strength.
Soft power is, at its root, the ability to convince other states to do what you want without force.
This is traditionally achieved by proving that you share morals and values.
Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Match info
Bournemouth 1 (King 45 1')
Arsenal 2 (Lerma 30' og, Aubameyang 67')
Man of the Match: Sead Kolasinac (Arsenal)
Company%20Profile
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The specs: 2018 Renault Koleos
Price, base: From Dh77,900
Engine: 2.5L, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 170hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 233Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.3L / 100km
What went into the film
25 visual effects (VFX) studios
2,150 VFX shots in a film with 2,500 shots
1,000 VFX artists
3,000 technicians
10 Concept artists, 25 3D designers
New sound technology, named 4D SRL
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
