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Away from Asian Games, Qataris pursue sport of the sheikhs, camel racing

(AP)
Updated: 2006-12-07 09:56

Like pretty much everybody else in Qatar, Obeid Nouri has been closely following the Asian Games. He knows that bringing the Olympics to this tiny, oil-rich nation on the Persian Gulf is one of Qatar's top political ambitions.

As far as Nouri is concerned, however, no international sports competition will ever really be complete until it includes his sport, "the sport of sheikhs."

Camel racing.

"This is our heritage," said Nouri, who came to Qatar from Sudan 10 years ago to train racing camels. "It is the sport we all like."

While the region's best athletes were competing in the first Asian Games ever held in an Arab nation, many Qataris were focused on what they consider to be a more serious pursuit _ racing their camels around a dusty 6-kilometer (3 1/2 mile) track outside this tiny desert village.

The races are held twice a week, but the ones going on during the Asian Games were especially important. The winners of a dozen or so heats qualified for an international camel race in the United Arab Emirates, one of the biggest races of the year.

Camel races can be chaotic.

At the start, the camels surge off the line in a tight pack, often almost trampling their trainers. The Qatari owners race on a paved road alongside in Landcruiser 4x4 vehicles, using remote controls to transmit commands to robot jockeys about the size of toasters. The robots are armed with whips to keep the camels interested in winning.

To add an element of class, the robots wear colorful cotton jerseys. Some had jockey hats.

"We used to use little boys as the riders until a couple of years ago," said Mohammed Abdulla, a race official charged with picking out the winners at the finish line. "But robots are better. They are lighter and more precise in their whipping."

Actually, there were other reasons as well.

Earlier this year, the rulers of the United Arab Emirates were accused in a lawsuit of enslaving tens of thousands of boys over three decades and forcing them to work as camel jockeys.

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