VIDEO: Russian duo of Sergei Perelygin and Alisa Petrova triumph in Ice Warrior 12

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Ice Warrior 12, the Women’s Cycling Challenge in Al Marmoom and the ContiFit Challenge topped a busy list of 12 sports events that took place in Dubai this weekend.

Organised in cooperation with Dubai Sports Council, the events were hold in different parts of Dubai and attracted hundreds of participants of different age and abilities, representing many different countries, including visitors like Russian Sergei Perelygin, who had come to Dubai along with his wife specifically to participate in Ice Warrior 12, which took place in Ski Dubai at the Mall of the Emirates on Friday.

The trip was worth it for Perelygin, who topped the charts in the Elite section of the challenge, clocking 29 minutes and 11 seconds on the gruelling 3.5km commando assault course that featured 24 icy obstacles like monkey bar swings, tyre runs and net crawls in sub-zero temperatures. Norway’s Hallvard Borsheim was second with a time of 30:59, while the UAE’s Sultan Al Saadi finished third in 31:45.

The Russian flag topped the podium in the women’s Elite category as well with Alisa Petrova completing the course in 32:55 to finish ahead of UAE’s Samirah Jalal (40:51).

The UAE’s Ahmed Al Shamsi was fastest in the men’s General category (2km course) with a time of 20:54, while South Africa’s Adam Du Plooy (24:20) and Si Pepper (25:12) of Great Britain took the second and third spots.

Oksana Butok of Ukraine was fastest among the women in the General category, clocking 31:53 to finish ahead of Lithuania’s Airida Diktanaite (32:50) and Sara Hart (36:10) of Germany.

In the Ladies Only category (2km course), the UAE’s Hessa Al Jassmy bagged the top spot with a time of 41:05, finishing ahead of compatriots Asma Al Blooshi (52:46) and Amal Al Blooshi (52:47).

In the DP World-sponsored Women’s Cycling Challenge, which took place on the Al Qudra cycling track, Dubai Police’s Tetiana Yashchenko of Dubai Police inched her teammate Kim De Baat to take top spot in the 70km Open category with a time of one hour, 48 minutes and 06.726 seconds.

De Baat finished second in 01:48:06.830; while Ebtissam Zayed of SBK 888 was third in 01:54:23.462.

In the 70km Emirati category, Dubai Police topped the podium again as Safia Mukhtar took the chequered flag in 02:02:56.248, with Ghaya Al Muhrizi (02:02:58.282) and Shahla Al Hosani (02:02:59.343) taking the second and third spots.

In the 40km Emirati category, Halah Mohammed took the top spot with a time of 01:10:26.758, while Mouza Al Ghafli (01:10:26.772) and Nadia Ali (01:13:45.786) followed closely behind.

Ruba Helani of the RTA Team bagged the honours in the 40km Open category with a time of 01:10:19.820, finishing ahead of Dubai Police’s Ana Usabiaga (01:10:20.18) and her RTA team-mate Afnan Abdulhameed (01:10:26.105).

The ContiFit Challenge — organised by Continental tyres to celebrate their 150th anniversary — also took place in Al Marmoom, at the Last Exit in Al Qudra, and it attracted scores of enthusiastic participants, who took on a family-friendly 150-metre course that featured five tyre-based obstacles, including a plank walk, tyre flip, crawl and sprint.

Khalil Dagher topped the leaderboard in the professional category of the event with a time of 02:06, while Mohamed Bayoudh, with a time of 01:17, was best among the amateurs.

In the other events, more than 500 took part in the Super Sports Meydan Run, which featured four different distances - 16km, 10km, 5km and 3km.

The Hamdan Sports Complex, meanwhile, hosted the IBEX Swimming Championship on Friday and Saturday, and 650 swimmers from various clubs and academies, as well as 37 members of the UAE national team, took part in the event.

The Championships served as a trial for UAE swimmers and the best performers at Hamdan Sports Complex over the weekend will make their way into the national team for the Arab Championships, which will be held in Abu Dhabi in March next year.