The top six boys and girls teams and the finalists in the Emirati Challenge put their skills to the test in the finals of the Schools Championships at the Salah Addin Sports Hall following highly successful preliminary rounds.

More than 455 players from 28 schools participated across the three rounds of the championships, a 50 per cent increase on the number of competitors in 2015.

Indian High School’s first victory came in the Boys Under-12 category, in which they defeated Our Own High School Al Warqa’a, 2-0. The result was reversed in the U-14 Boys, which Our Own High School Al Warqua’a won 2-1.

The second category win for the IHS came in the Boys U-16 division where they recorded a 2-0 over Gems Our Own Indian School.

In the girls divisions, the IHS triumphed in the U-14 category with a 3-0 win over GEMS Our Own English High School, while also posting a 3-0 win over GEMS Our Own Indian School in the U-16 division.

In the girls U-12 category, Dubai Gems Private School stopped the Indian High School’s from making a clean sweep, winning 2-1.

In the Emirati challenge girls’ divisions, the Al Ebdaa Model School and the Dubai International School Al Quoz shared the honours. The Dubai International School’s Shaikha Ahmad took out the girls U-12 division over schoolmate Athari Ali. In the U-14 division Al Ebdaa Model School’s Hend Al Moazan defeated Shaikha Saeed of Dubai International School.

Al Ebdaa Model School also won the Girl’s U-16 division with Hind Almehairi defeating Rouda Saeed of Dubai International School.

In the boy’s divisions the honours were shared, with Mohammed Naqi of Al- Ahmadiya School defeating Juma Ahmed Juma of Al Qiyam School in the U-12 division, and Mahammed Ali of Dubai National School winning the U-14 division over school mate Abdullah Zubair. Finally, Ahmad Ibrahim of Dubai International School Al Quoz was victorious in the U-16 division, defeating Zayed Al Shamsi of Dubai National School.

The competition was organized in conjunction with the Dubai Sports Council, and is part of the ongoing Shuttle Time Dubai grassroots development program which is aimed at increasing participation in badminton.

Shuttle Time Dubai is part of Dubai’s four-year, multi-platform partnership with the Badminton World Federation (BWF), facilitated by Falcon and Associates, the pinnacle of which is the staging of the annual Dubai World Superseries Finals, which will be held in the city each year until 2017.