Zahra Lari is used to dressing up for her figure-skating performances – but this weekend one of her outfits will be a little more outrageous than normal.
The first Emirati to compete internationally in the sport, Lari will lead 50 skaters of all ages in the Abu Dhabi Figure Skating Team’s annual gala, a reality show parody called The Ice Factor this weekend.
“I play Steven Tyler [the Aerosmith frontman],” she says. “It’s a very interesting costume.” Lari will go on to perform in six numbers during the show at Zayed Sports City Ice Rink tomorrow night and Saturday night.
The 18-year-old is a first-year student at Abu Dhabi University, where she is studying environmental health and safety. And although she is still recovering from spraining a ligament in her back over the summer, which meant she had to cancel all competition plans for the rest of the year, she will be back in the new year starting with the New Year’s Cup in Slovakia, from January 3 to 6.
She has a new coach – the Hungarian Zsolt Kerekes, who steered the Dutch skater Manouk Gijsman to her national title in 2009 – and is working on mastering more difficult spins, intricate footwork and her first two triple jumps, the the salchow and toe-loop.
With a more flexible university schedule, it’s been easier to fit in two to four hours of daily training, meaning no more 4.30am rink sessions before classes.
Lari, who began skating when she was 11, believes the attention she’s received in recent years is boosting the sport’s popularity.
“Since I’ve started and more people know about it, we’ve had more locals joining the team,” she says.
• Tickets for The Ice Factor start from Dh50 and can be bought in advance from www.ticketmaster.ae and on the door at Zayed Sports City Ice Rink
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SCORES
Yorkshire Vikings 144-1 in 12.5 overs
(Tom Kohler 72 not out, Harry Broook 42 not out)
bt Hobart Hurricanes 140-7 in 20 overs
(Caleb Jewell 38, Sean Willis 35, Karl Carver 2-29, Josh Shaw 2-39)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
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Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
