Arab Women Sports Tournament 2020 to kick off in February

The Supreme Organising Committee of the Arab Women Sports Tournament, AWST 2020, has set 2nd February, 2020, as the launch date of the fifth edition of the sporting event, which will be held in Sharjah.

The event will be held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah, Chairperson of Sharjah Women’s Sports, SWS.

A tournament manifesto has been released by the committee, which defines the roles and objectives of all administrative committees. It also highlights the roles of the follow-up and supervision, sportswomen eligibility, doping control, disciplinary and appellate committees, games’ technical committees, judges and referees’ committees, as well as outlining the roles of the General Secretariat for the union of key committees of the tournament.

The manifesto contains comprehensive details of the eligibility criteria that players and athletes will need to meet to qualify for the tournaments nine competitions: basketball, volleyball, table tennis, archery, fencing, equestrian jumping, karate, shooting and athletics.

AWST 2020 has approved special prizes for participating clubs, including a ‘Club Sports Excellence’ trophy for the club that earns maximum medals, a ‘Sports Excellence’ trophy for the club competing in maximum AWST disciplines, and a ‘Fair Play Committee Union’ trophy, awarded to the club with the lowest number of violations on administrative or technical levels.

Nada Askar Al Naqbi, Deputy Head of AWST’s Supreme Organising Committee, Head of AWST’s Executive Committee and Director General of SWS, noted that AWST has grown to become an international competition platform, offers high-caliber Emirati sportswomen to compete with their Arab counterparts, and together, they present a true image of the region’s sporting spirit to the world.

“We are steadily closing in on the launch of the fifth edition of the region’s leading sports tournament designed exclusively for sportswomen representing the region. AWST reaffirms Sharjah’s role in nurturing and advancing women’s sports in the Arab world,” said Al Naqbi.

The first edition of AWST was held in 2012. The pan-Arab tournament is held biennially with the aim of furthering women’s sports in the Arab region. More than 65 women sports clubs from more than 15 Arab countries have competed on the AWST platform since the tournament’s inception.