Foundations Newsletter

The stereotype of Emirati women features shopping more than sporting prowess, but we have some very enthusiastic participants in team sports. The College football, basketball and volleyball teams give bigger institutions like Zayed University and the American University of Sharjah a run for their money, winning the basketball tournament last month and coming 3^rd in the ZU annual football tournament.

We also have an on-going 2 semester-long tournament for the Director’s Trophy which includes volleyball, football, basketball, badminton, movement to music and swimming. Foundations teams compete against girls from the five other departments. They train twice a week with Alyson Gibbons-Menzies and so far they have clinched 1^st place in the Football tournament, 1^st place in the Basketball tournament and 2^nd place in the Volleyball tournament.

At a higher level, the College hosted one of the events of the recent Arab Women Sports Tournament. This tournament brought together teams from Women’s Clubs from across the Arab world for competitions in basketball and volleyball in team games, and table tennis, shooting, fencing, archery, and Athletics in individual games. Sharjah Women’s College hosted the table-tennis competition from 3^rd to 5^th February.

It’s not just the students: Foundation staff have also notched up some commendable achievements in sport. Last month, 5 members of Sharjah Colleges were involved in the annual RAK half marathon. After training for many months, Charlotte Dymond, Stephen Dersley, Alyson Gibbons-Menzies, Sally Marsh and Andrew Mackenzie crossed the finish line to complete the grueling 21 km.

Staff have also competed in the bi-annual open water Mina Mile Swim series. The championships are held in November and in March. Swimmers of all ages compete in open water at Mina Seyahi, Dubai over a distance of 1600m. Alyson Gibbons-Menzies received a 2^nd and a 1^st giving her 1^st place overall, Phil Haydon received a 3^rd and a 2^nd giving him 2nd place overall, John Raven received a 5^th and 3^rd giving him a 3^rd place overall. Stephen Dersley also competed in both series and achieved  personal best times in both.

This month Sharjah Colleges will be hosting the annual Super Sprint Triathlon which is organized by Charlotte Dymond and Lindsey van de Byl. Many individual competitors and team members from the colleges will be competing against other institutions from as far as Abu Dhabi and RAK. Good luck to all the individual competitors and team members who will be swimming cycling and running the HCT Sharjah University City Course.