Changes in sport & leisure activities

                                                                   Camel racing 

In the UAE , 40 years ago weddings were very different compared with these daysو there were many entertainment activities such as Yola dance, traditional songs and camel racing where the camels were used as transportation and food but also they were used as entertainments activities in wedding and other occasion.
On Saturday I was sitting with one of my family who has witnessed the development of the UAE and has experienced the changes in the wedding , life and sport; he is Mr.Salem Al Menhali; 70 years old and his favorite passion was and still is camel racing. He said “camel racing was one of the most enjoyable activities in most occasions where Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan was the first one who inspired the citizens to create a track for camels to race and consider it as sport. Moreover; Sheikh Zayed prepared the first Mrkad in al-Wathba and encouraged the citizens to participate in camel racing after he had met with families in 1975 and raised the issue of including camel racing as sport not only as  an activity” Mr.Salem said that “ Sheikh Zayed explained the benefits of including camel racing as a traditional sport, the  value of this sport and assured that he would prepare for them the mrkad which is  a place or area where camels will race; also I was very proud when Sheikh Zayed rewarded me after winning the second place in Mrkad at AlWathba.” .
He added that camel racing had been developed over the years; after the formulation of the UAE, there was one Mrkad in Al-Wathba for camel racing and people used to ride the camel or make their children ride and compete; however, some of them rented workers from India or Pakistan to ride the camels and race. At that time, camel racing was considered as an entertainment activity for most people.
He continued “Camel racing is a traditional sport which started in the UAE and Gulf countries and now it has become one of the sports in Australia, Jordan, France and many other countries.”

Nevertheless nowadays, there are over eight Mrkads in the UAE and, due to the danger of riding camels for children and workers, the suggestion of having robot machine to ride the camel instead of human body appeared but there were few people who supported the suggestion. Over the years the number of people who supported the suggestion had been increased until it became one of the conditions to participate in camel racing that had been spread across the Gulf countries.

Camel racing has become not just a traditional sport but also a business trends that increase the awareness of having good generations of camels and their prices have been increased as well based on their classification and characteristics.
Additional, camel racing is different from one country to another where it is surrounded by different rules. For the UAE, camel racing starts from October to April. Also, there are over 14,000 Arabian camels in the UAE that are active for camel racing. Now, it becomes a big event where people from all over the world come to see the race and it takes media attention where they record the event and play it through TV, radio and other media.