KUWAIT CITY, May 19: The 22nd Annual Raft Race will be held this Friday at Aqua Park with 11 teams participating in wooden-rope and welded raft categories. This was announced by Mohammed A Khourshed, General Manager, Aqua Park, at a press conference Wednesday. Khourshed began by clarifying that the race held at Hilton Hotel using inflatable boats a few days back had nothing to do with the annual raft race by Aqua Park. “The organizers of that race lifted the idea from our event and just packaged it differently. We objected to their using the name ‘Raft Race’ for their event, and so they changed it,” Khourshed added. The general manager also accused the organizers of the other race of using unpleasant language against Aqua Park. “Raft Race was started 22 years ago by Messila Waterbridge, and when the hotel went in for renovation 8 years ago, we suggested that the event be shifted to Aqua Park to keep the race going unbroken.

“And thus we have been organizing it for the last 8 years.” Talking about this year’s race, Abdul Lateef Al-Shimmari, Marketing Manager at Aqua Park, said that a total of 11 teams are participating in this year’s tournament. “Al-Sayer represents 6 teams, Al-Bustan 2 teams, ABB 2 teams, and Aqua Park 1 team. He said that because of the economic situation and the confusion created by a similar event at Hilton Hotel, the turnout of participants has been low. “However, we will make up for it next year. Aqua Park is planning to construct 6 new rafts and form more teams. We will be giving the rafts to teams that are in need of them.” This is our way of encouraging more teams to take part in the race, because building rafts is the most difficult part of preparing for the race, Al-Shimmari added. The race will have many events on its sidelines to spice up the afternoon. Soap Football, Go Karting in the Speed Zone, Beach football and volleyball will also attract many people. Visitors will have lots of free gifts.

Khourshed said that Al-Jazeera Entertainment Enterprise has recently signed a contract with Hala Group Enterprise of Qatar to set up Qatar’s first water-theme park. Khourshed will be the General Manager of the park.
Some of the participating teams had their last practice session at Aqua Park before the race. Khalid Al-Enezi, captain of Al-Sayer team, speaking to the Arab Times, said they are very confident and have been working very hard for the last 3 months.
“Due to the pollution in the waters of Mesilla Beach, we were unable to practice there. So we have been practicing in Aqua Park all the three months.”
The six-time reigning champions are facing the race with 6 teams. Enezi said that Al-Sayer attaches a lot of importance to this event. “We build high quality rafts, designed by specialist for greater aero-dynamicity and efficiency.”
The race is set to start after the noon prayers on Friday, and will wind up before 4 pm when the high tides begin.