Abu Dhabi on track
Chris Lomax MBE has gone away for the weekend and, sitting here at Zayed International Airport, late on Friday evening and considering my impending overnight economy flight, I’d completely forgotten it was my turn to write our Friday update. Better late than never ...
We recently started working with Ross Baxter and the Department of Community Development here in Abu Dhabi, and I was excited to come out again, having first explored the Emirate back in February this year.
On Tuesday evening I was honoured to be a guest at the Middle East Sport Industry Awards thanks to Sally and Chris from Interact, who also co-hosted the evening brilliantly. Celebrating the impact of sport, from grass roots to super elite, across the Middle East, it was great to spend time with so many inspirational people, not least my old friend Tom Foley.
I first met Tom ten years ago (at another awards ceremony) just before we established a relationship between parkrun UK and Intersport UK & Ireland. Tom’s currently the CEO of GO Sport, a chain of sports stores and franchises across the Middle East, and from July the 1st will step into the role of CEO at INTERSPORT Group, where he will be responsible for a mere 5,464 specialist stores across 42 countries. Congrats mate!
I did manage to also get some of my own running in, as Andrew and Lisa from Abu Dhabi Striders showed me around Reem Island on Wednesday evening, and then I joined Youssef Rochdi and the brilliant Abu Dhabi Running Team for a Thursday-evening track session (in a mere 34 degrees). This was my second time at the Zayed Sports City track, with Youssef and his team, and once again found it to be an incredibly inclusive and welcoming experience, with participants from a diverse range of backgrounds and varying abilities.
If parkrun was a track session this would be it (free, weekly, timed, and truly for everyone), and I don’t say that lightly, so if you’re ever over this side of the world on a Thursday evening then please don’t hesitate to join them. Search up (as my kids would say) abudhabirunningteam on Instagram if you want to find out more.
That's it for now, tomorrow morning I'll be back pitch-side in Yorkshire (sleep deprived, about 20 degrees cooler, and significantly wetter) as Aston's U11s footy team head to Otley for their first tournament of the 'summer'.