Sporting in Sana’a University [Archives:2007/1058/Last Page]
June 11 2007
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Sana'a University wrapped up its sports season on Wednesday, June 6 with a big carnival. Every year, the university administration arranges a tournament for students from Sana'a colleges and their branches. Activities are held in various fields, including social, cultural and sports activities.
Such activities create strong competition between both male and female students to win the University Cup. Students participate in four sports, which are the favorites among Yemeni youth: football, ping pong, volleyball. Additionally, women students participate in Judo and chess, their only opportunity in the competition.
Two rounds are held each year. At the beginning of the year, each college and its sections begins forming its teams for the four sports. Each college then begins preparing for the competitions, wherein each college's teams meet each other. In the first semester, competition is only between college teams, with the losing team being eliminated.
In the second semester, the competition is expanded to include all college teams meeting each other to compete for the University Cup. Competition begins between college section teams. The winning team will represent that college in front of the other college teams. The next competition involves other colleges and branches of Sana'a University.
In the past, such competition was only for university students; however, the university administration has formed new teams representing the university's security personnel and another team for university employees.
“We thought to let security and employee staffers partner with the students in the competition, especially after seeing their good interaction in such an event,” Abdulrahman Al-Rasean, administrative manager of sports at Sana'a University, noted.
Such activities also build relations between students from different colleges, as well as allow them the chance to acquire many skills. “We aim to create better communication between students, increase sporting activities, decrease the stresses of studying and use their leisure time,” Al-Rasean adds.
Women's participation
Compared to men, women's participation in sports isn't high, as social, and cultural and other factors play a role in decreasing such participation. The university administration pays more attention to men's activities because they are available for training and participation. Additionally, some players continue after university and join national teams.
As Najeah Wafei, Judo trainer and supervisor of women's teams at Sana'a University, points out, “Women actually are good at sports, but they're interested to acquire the skills or join the activities only for fun. They often leave after spending a long time training and getting good experience.”
Many women students at the university participate in such sporting activities as a way to increase their fitness. Most aspire to attain skills in self defense, so they're interested to join the Judo team.
“Some women are professionals at some sports, but then they can't continue their activities after leaving the university because they either get married or become busy with their work,” Wafei regretted.
However, there is a step to encourage women to participate in such activities by establishing indoor sports for women and preparing professional female staff to train them.
Many competitions between Yemeni universities are arranged for both male and female students, including numerous matches throughout the second semester. “I watched approximately 64 matches involving all of the university colleges and its branches,” Ahmad Al-Madrai, trainer of the Sana'a University ping pong team, said.
Unfortunately, some college teams don't prepare for such competition, which negatively affects the entire competition. “This semester, we prepared well for the competition between four universities involving the Sana'a, Taiz, Aden and Hodeidah teams. However, the competition was canceled for unknown reasons. Such problems decrease our performance and interest,” Wafei said.
Results of second semester round
Observing the results of competition in the final semester's activities, the most active team was the commerce college. Results from the five sports are as follows, according to the winners' places:
Championships at Sana'a University
Judo
1. Media team
2. Commerce college
3. Computer college
4. Residential students
Ping-pong
1. Arts college
2. Commerce college
Volleyball
1. Commerce college
2. Dentistry team
3. Commerce college
4. Media team
Chess
1. Commerce college
2. Engineering college
Football
1. Commerce college
2. Computer college
3. Residential students
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