UAE 'girls squad' in capital city for Kerala School Sports Festival

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the first time, girl students from across the sea arrived in Kerala to participate in the School Sports Festival. Aisha Nawab, Sana Fatima, Sheikha Ali, Tammana, and Naja Fatima are the five girls studying the Kerala syllabus in various schools in the UAE who arrived in the state to participate in the sports meet. They are students of classes 10, 11, and 12.

There are 34 boys in the U.A.E. team. Only boys from the UAE participated in the meet held last year. The boys will compete in football, badminton, basketball, and athletics.

The group includes children from NIMS Dubai, The English School Umm al-Quwain, Gulf Model School Dubai, Abu Dhabi Model School, and Indian School Fujairah. Most of the students are Malayalees born and brought up in Dubai. The UAE team was selected by evaluating the scores of the winners in each event at the previous year's sports meet. Each school covers the cost of the team, which also includes teachers. Hafsat, the sports coordinator at NIMS Dubai, is the only woman among the teachers. The other teachers are Naren, Ali, Mahesh, Chandran, Muhammad Nazir, Suhail, and Mukundan. The students are hopeful of putting up an excellent game on the field.

• The Olympic-style State School Sports Festival will begin today in Thiruvananthapuram
• Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the event at the University Stadium at 4 pm
• Football legend I.M. Vijayan will light the torch and will be joined by Minister V. Sivankutty.
• 20,000 competitors will participate in the eight-day meet
• Competitions will be held in 12 venues.
• Accommodation facilities will be provided in 75 schools in the city.
• 200 buses will be at service to meet transportation demands