Long established as one of the region’s most prestigious sporting prizes, this year’s glittering ceremony was headlined by Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, who received the ‘Local Sports Personality’ award in recognition of her tireless contribution to equestrian sport.

Princess Haya, a decorated international show jumper and former Olympian, stood down from her role as President of the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) in December 2014, after completing two terms of service.

Holding the position from 2007 to 2014, she did much to modernize the Federation and promote good governance and transparency. Meanwhile, ‘The Arab Athlete Award’ was won by Ehab Abdul Rahman Al Sayed Abdul Rahman (Egypt) for his magnificent silver medal at last year’s World Athletics Championship.

The ‘The Local Athlete Award’ was won by Saif Khalifa Al-Mansouri, for his skeet shooting excellence and qualification for the Rio Olympic Games.

Elsewhere, ‘The Local Team Award; was collected by the UAE Archery National Team for winning golden medal in the World Championship 2015 in Croatia.

Several other teams, clubs, athletes, referees and administrators were lauded, as well as some of the UAE’s finest emerging young talents.

They included karting prodigy Rashid Al Dhaheri, aged just 7, who enjoyed a stellar 2015 both at home and abroad.