Development

United World Wrestling Wins MBR Creative Sports Award, $250k for Development Work

Tuesday, November 27, 2018 - 14:50 By United World Wrestling Press

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DUBAI (November 27) – United World Wrestling has won the "MBR Creative Sports Award" for best initiative for an International Summer Olympic International Federation. The award, one of Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, was in recognition of United World Wrestling’s development program “More than Medals” a Cadet-level wrestling initiative active on five continents in 2018.

The award, worth $250,000, was announced as part of the MBR Creative Sports Award 10th annual award and is the “primary sports award dedicated to inspiring creativity in sports in the UAE, Arab countries, and worldwide.”

“We are very grateful for this recognition and see it as sign that our hard work in reaching young athletes is having a positive effect,” said United World Wrestling president and IOC executive board member, Nenad Lalovic. “The MBR Creative Sports Award will go far in helping expand the reach of our development department.”

A young athlete waits for additional training during a session at the More than Medals camp last summer in Zagreb. (Photo: Max Rose-Fyne)

Mustapha Larfaoui, Member of the Award's Board of Trustees, and Chairman of the Arbitration Committee thanked all participating nations, athletes and federations.

"We are pleased with the growth achieved in the number of candidates locally, at Arab level and internationally, as well as the keenness of sports institutions and federation to participate through its initiatives and programs dedicated for youth.”

The 2018 More than Medals program ran from February to July and impacted more than 200 young wrestlers and coaches to qualify for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The "MBR Creative Sports Award" award is named for His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of Dubai Sports Council, Patron of the Award and H.H Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the UAE National Olympic Committee. The award was created and increase and strengthen innovation and creativity in sports at the Arab level and internationally through honoring the innovators and excellency in sports work.

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UWW Educators Attend Special NCDA Cohort at NSSU

Friday, May 1, 2026 - 09:09 By United World Wrestling Press

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TOKYO (April 24) -- United World Wrestling's Development Officer Vicent AKA and Education Manager Zach ERRETT recently completed Cohort 9 for the National Coach Developer Academy [NCDA] at the Nippon Sport Science University in Tokyo, Japan.

The NCDA is programme that runs over seven months and includes two sessions at Nippon Sports Science University working with experts in coaching development. It is designed to help participants learn strategies for how to develop and train coaches [train the trainer].

NSSU conducts the programme, that helps train coach developers for different sports and organizations, in partnership with International Council for Coaching Excellence [ICCE] which was created in 1997.

DevelopmentUWW Educators Vincent AKA, left, and Zach ERRETT.

Both Aka and Errett participated with 13 other participants from around the world and different sports. During the programme, both improved their facilitation skills, learned new strategies for training and developing coaches, and designed and implemented a growth development project.

"The training was very interesting and allowed us to grow as a person and ideas for how to organize our system. We were able to learn something we would directly use and to learn from experts in the field," Aka said.

Errett said that the education he received at the NCDA will help them train coaches and educators better in wrestling.

"We had an opportunity to learn from experts in the field of coach development and learn from colleagues around the world," Errett said. "We can use this information to help better train coaches and educators in the future."

Cohort 10, the next edition of the programme, will be attended by UWW Educator Oyan NAZARIANI.

“I am honored to be selected for the NCDA programme," Nazariani said. "At this stage of my career, my focus is on developing structured and sustainable coach education systems. I am particularly excited to deepen my knowledge as a coach developer, strengthen the programme we plan to implement in Azerbaijan, and apply advanced methodologies both in national coaching courses and in international courses I conduct as a UWW Educator across different countries."