The Anti-Doping Committee of the Arab Women Sports Tournament (AWST) held an anti-doping awareness workshop at the Sharjah Ladies Club on January 10. The workshop focused on the risks associated with the use of steroids so that athletes taking part in the tournament’s third edition, to be held in Sharjah from February 2-12, are aware of its consequences.

A hundred female athletes from Emirati clubs took part in the workshops held by the Chairman of the Anti-Doping Committee, Dr. Abdul Aziz Al Muhairi, with Nora Al Hamr, head of the Sports Teams Committee for the AWST. Female athletes from the Sharjah

Ladies Club, Al Dhaid Cultural and Sports Club in Sharjah, and Bani Yas Club in Abu Dhabi took part in the workshops which also focused on the risks associated with the use of steroids and the importance of maintaining good health.

Dr. Al Muhairi said, “We played a video by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in Arabic that took them through all the aspects of doping from methods of steroid detection to the banned substances. We also spoke about the temptation athletes face and how that may lead to heavy and irreversible consequences such as reputation damage.”

Al Muhairi wished the participating teams luck and said that the organizing committee of AWST has worked hard to provide training sessions to all the participating clubs and countries. He added, “The primary goal of the workshop was to establish that AWST promotes the principle of equality and justice and so will not tolerate players taking steroids to pump up their performance when others are working hard to achieve success based on merit. We want to maintain a fair atmosphere for competition to flourish.”

Nada al Naqbi, Deputy Head of AWST’s Supreme Organising Committee, Head of Executive Committee, and Tournaments Manager acknowledged the cooperation from athletes at the workshop and stressed the importance of such lectures in helping to spread awareness about the consequences of doping. She said, “We haven’t yet experienced any cases related to doping in the previous two editions of the tournament and a clean tournament is what we hope for in the 2016 edition as well. Steroid tests conducted on 36 athletes have all come back negative.”

She added, “AWST is a major athletic event that brings Arab countries closer, and improves the level of women's sports in the Arab world. We wish success to everyone and hope that the tournament will achieve its goals of encouraging women’s sports in the Arab region so that they can go on to compete on the international level.

The AWST was launched after the Sharjah Ladies Club organized a number of successful sports tournaments called “Gulf Countries Competition” under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah and Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs. Following this success HH Sheikha Jawaher established the Women Sports Department in 2008. Arab countries outside the Gulf expressed interest in taking part in future events and as a result, HH Sheikha Jawaher developed the Arab Women Sports Tournament, the first of its kind in the Arab World. The first two editions took place successfully in 2012 and 2014. There will be eight competitions in the 2016 edition including basketball, volleyball, table tennis, fencing, archery, shooting, athletics and show jumping.