JEDDAH, 25 October 2005 — In front of basketball officials and fans, the fourth amateur basketball tournament on the street dubbed “ Ready 4 the challenge” kicked off last weekend and attracted over 740 excited entrants representing around 80 teams from all districts in Jeddah.
The annual tournament is supervised by Saudi Basketball Federation and organized by Publicis Graphics for the fourth year in the row. Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Street is the tournament venue where a huge crowd came in the last three days to enjoy the games.
As a big supporter of the tournament, Prince Talal bin Badr, president of Saudi and Arab basketball federations, underlined the success of street basketball tournament which is now on its fourth year in a row.
“ First of all I would like to thank those who are behind this tournament because we all are working together to improve and develop the game of basketball in Saudi Arabia.” He noted that street basketball has been helping in recruiting many talented players and the federation would always support such events.
Imad Beyhum, head of the organizing committee said: “ the purpose of street basketball is for players of all ages to enjoy the game of basketball and to have fun during the beautiful nights of Ramadan.”
He added that the event also aimed to develop the game of basketball and discover new talents which could help play in famous Saudi clubs and represent their country.
Samer Khawashki, Burger King KSA General Manager and a sponsor of the event, lauded the idea of holding such a sports activity to assist in supporting basketball in Saudi Arabia and also to bring out new talents to the basketball court.
“We are proud to be part of this event and hope we are contributing to our Saudi basketball to make it reach to the highest level,” he said.
In addition to Burger King, the event is also supported by Bison, Renault, GO Sport, Al Watan Newspaper and Iqra Channel. The organizing committee is offering daily gifts for fans and participants and SR10,000 for the champions and SR5,000 for the runners-up.
