The focus is not so much on the gender difference in the sporting arena, as it is on the growing popularity of endurance sports in the country with a host of events lined up to pump up the winter calendar – Ironman 70.3, 5i50 Oman, Haute Route, Oman UTMB, Millennium Triathlon, Al Mouj Marathon…
Of course, endurance sport has no gender bias nor is it seen as a prerogative of men alone, but the fact, however, remains that the number of male athletes in high-performance sports is higher than females. In the marathon running world, the ratio of male participants to female participants is about 60 percent men to 40 percent women. While that may be attributed to a variety of reasons, even the fabric of the society, what is of interest here is the growing interest in the sport, and the inevitable focus on fitness that it has spawned in recent times.
This October issue taps the exciting new phase in the endurance sports arena with the cover story presenting Mohammed Obaidani, the man behind the highly anticipated Ironman event and Haitham Al Farai, an established triathlete who is taking his interest in endurance sports a notch higher with the setting up of Elite Triathlon Academy to train and build endurance levels of interested folks.
Sports, rather extreme sports, is but an excuse at FACES quarters to celebrate men and their winning ways. Come along and become a part of this adrenaline pumping issue, as we pay tribute to men from different walks of life, while honouring those who have made time and taken efforts to break the monotonous work-office routine to test the capabilities of their bodies and minds to endure tests and come up winners.