Al Gafri hopes medal inspires many

Mohammad Humaid Al Gafri hopes his first international swimming medal will inspire a whole new generation of champions."I have today fulfilled a long-cherished dream for myself and for my country. I only hope this medal will not be the last one for the UAE," Al Gafri told Gulf News after Saturday's bronze medal in the men's 50m backstroke at the opening round of the 2011 Fina/Arena Swimming World Cup at the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Sports Complex."This is such a huge moment for me and for the UAE. Winning a medal is a great achievement for anyone and I am overwhelmed with this. I promise to work even harder and ensure greater moments of glory for UAE swimming in the future," Al Gafri said.Though holding up the pursuing pack of swimmers in the eight-man field, Al Gafri did well to finish strongly and come in fourth. However, with Kristian Kron of Sweden getting disqualified, the bronze landed around Al Gafri's neck to hand the UAE its first swimming medal on the international stage.The race was won by Japan's Masafumi Yamaguchi with a time of 24.17, while Brazilian Nelson Silva Junior took the silver, leaving Al Gafri with bronze with a time of 26.08. "My target was a sub-25 seconds time, but I reacted late at the start and that cost me," he said.A product of Al Ain Club, Al Gafri started swimming more than a decade ago. "At first things were not so easy as we did not even have a proper swimming pool," he said."But now it's been a year since we have this pool and we have already won a medal. I feel confident about the future," Al Gafri added.The 23-year-old's next challenge is the Gulf Games in Bahrain from October tomorrow to Thursday followed by the Pan-Arab Games in Doha from December 10-23. Al Gafri has already been named by the UAE's American coach Jay Benner in the national team for both competitions."My time right now is good enough for a gold medal in both the Gulf and Pan-Arab competitions. But this does not mean I am going to relax and take things easy. I want to win more medals for my country," Al Gafri said."There is no time for celebration. We all have a lot of hard work ahead of us so that we can keep this momentum of winning more medals," he added.