I interviewed my father Mohamed Obaid Alremeithi who is 56
years old.
He spoke about 5 different kinds of sports. Swimming,
diving, running, fighting, and camel racing.
Swimming:-
Swimming is a competition that was held between the people of
the same neighborhood. The contestants had to swim from point A to point B, and
sometimes back to point A, this distance is usually from 100 to 200 meters. One
of the elderly is the referee, and he is standing at the beach ready to give
the contestants the sign to start swimming. The first one to reach point A
again is the winner, keep in mind that there is another elderly at point b watching
contestants so that no one cheats.
Diving:-
Diving is separated to two part. The first part called
"Altturg” Which is a competition where several contestants dive then swim
while staying underwater, the one who is able to swim the furthest while
staying underwater wins. For example, if I was contestant, the place that I
start from is point A, I dove and starting swimming, when I ran out of breath
and get out of the water that is called point B, they measure the distance from
point A to point B, and the one with the highest distance wins the competition.
The second part is a competition where is one of the elderlies throw a specific
item at the sea where the water is about five to seven meters deep. The contestants
have to dive to the bottom of the sea and retrieve this item, which was pretty
hard because back then the clothes didn’t help them at all, in fact they were
setback because they used to absorb the water which added weight to them.
Running:-
Running is a competition which was held between the “Freej” which
is a neighborhood that contains about 10 houses. The contestant have to run
from point A to point B, and sometimes back to point A. First one to reach the
finish point is the winner.
Fighting:-
Fighting is an old game that was played or used to build the
bodies of the young adults, the two fighters start by standing in front of each
other, and having their hand behind the other person. When the referee gives
them the start signal, they try their best to get their opponent to the ground,
the one who can drop opponent to the ground and keep him there wins. This game
was hold every day. Keep in mind that the fighters don’t hate each other. In a
matter fact they treat each other’s as brothers, because they live in the same
Freej, and that Freej is like a huge family.
Camel Racing:-
Camel racing was not like what it is now, it was different.
It was in the morning and only held if there was a special occasion and especially
if it was a wedding. This race was between a couple of people which is always
ranges depending on the available number of people. Each contestants bring the
best camel the own and they start racing from a place which is point A, to
point B which is usually near the grooms house. There are two referees, one at
the starting point, and the other and the finish point. After the race starts
and finishes, the referees discuss if anyone of the contestants cheated by
starting early for example. The owner of the first camel to reach the finish
line is considered the winner. The groom usually awards the winner with an
amount of money like five hundred or a thousand dirhams. They also dye the
winning camel face with saffron so people can recognize that it is the winner.
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