According to football fans there is no better occasion than the final match between Al-Shabab of Qasim and Hilal of Riyadh.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah is to attend the final. The king’s gracing the occasion reflects his support and appreciation of the Saudi youth and athletes’ efforts in the every discipline. Many of the players, who will be in action, have contributed to Saudi Arabia’s qualification to the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany.

Meantime, Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, president of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare and Saudi Football Federation has given the green light for the Riyadh districts tournament in which Prince Saud ibn Yousif will direct its organization committee.

It will also be under the supervision of the head office of the Youth Welfare in Riyadh.

Around 200 teams will participate with each presenting a district. Each district will have four groups; these groups will play against each other until two qualify to play at the quarterfinals. Then the four qualified teams will play at the semifinals and the winning team will be the one who will present his district at the first round for the districts. The first group at the first round will include, Al- Diraiyah, Al-Batha, Manfouha, Al-Oraijaa, Al- Janoub, Atigah, Al-Hair and Al-Dirah. Second group comprises, Al-Malazz, Al-Sili, Al-Olaya, Al-Naseem, Al-Miathar, Al-Rawdah, Irgah and Al-Shamal.

Equestrian: In Buraidah, the Equestrian Club hosted their 21st equestrian tournament on Wednesday that consisted of four races. Al-Zafaraa, belonging to Khalid Al- Saghir, won the first race over 1,600 meters.

The Martyr Attallah Al-Mitairi’s Cup went to Mujzil of Al-Izz stable in the second race over a distance of 2,000 meters. Muftah Al-Khair, owned by Salih Al-Bawardi , won the 2,000 meters race for novices for the Tasheelat Company’s Cup. The fourth race, open for all, over 2,000 meters was won by the mare Ward Al-Riyadh, owned by Abdulilah Al-Munsalih.

Athletics: Al-Qatif is hosting the 10th Gulf Championship from April 18 to 21 at the Prince Naif ibn Abdul Aziz sport city. Six countries, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the hosts Saudi Arabia, are taking part at this event. Results of the first two days are as follow; Saudi Arabia led with 4 golds, 8 silvers and 3 bronzes; Kuwait had 4 golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes; Oman 2 golds, 2 silvers and 1 bronze; United Arab Emirates 2 golds, 1 silvers and 1 bronze; Qatar 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze and Bahrain with 1 gold and 1 silver.

Taekwondo: The International Taekwondo Federation and Saudi Taekwondo Federation lauded the great efforts made to run a successful First International Taekwondo for Clubs.

Jeddah hosted the championship held April 11 to 14 at the King Fahd Coastal City. Fourteen international teams representing 11 countries competed. The staff who worked hard to make this championship a big success were Captain Abu Bakur Kurdi, deputy-president of the championship; championship organizer Mahir Mous; registration staff Islam Zawawi, Mustafa Zawawi, Khalid Shihata and Dr. Osamah Kathim; international coach and referee Adil Al-Nuwaihi and PRO Abdulla Jarwan.

Tennis: Al-Jeal club from Al-Ahsaa beat Al-Khalij club 3/0 at the First Clubs Cup in Dammam. Al-Jeal led the group with no loss and score of 24 points while Al-Faisali came second with 20 points after the winning the match with Al-Khalij 2-1. Al-Jeal and Al- Faisali qualified to play in the main Saudi league starting from the next season. This year’s Saudi League first division lured 10 clubs namely Al-Jeal, Al-Nakhil, Al-Faisali, Al-Ansar, Al-Garrah, Al-Qalaah, Al-Khalij, Al-Muheit, Al-Rimmah and Al-Thaqbah.

Homing Pigeon Racing: On Sunday Prince Abdulrahman ibn Abdullah Al-Faisal, president of the Saudi Federation for Homing Pigeon Racing thanked Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal for donating SR100,000 as prize in the tournament organized in his honor.

The prize went to the province’s champions as an encouragement from the prince for their achievements in this sport. Prince Abdulrahman explained in his thank you letter that this prize became one of the important prizes the champions look forward to win.

Equestrian: Prince Badr ibn Mohammad ibn Saud upstaged some of the country’s veteran riders to win the Saudi Equestrian Federation Cup last week at Al-Ghazawi equestrian center in Jeddah. More than 70 riders saw action in the three-day show jumping event hosted by Ahmad Badreeq on behalf of Saudi Equestrian Federation President Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal. Prince Badr claimed the title when he beat Fahd Al-Eid in the raceoff after Prince Badr and Al-Eid topped the first and second round. Prince Badr was penalized for a point and the rest for four points, while Al-Eid was all clear in the second round. In the raceoff, both riders cleared the hurdles but Prince Badr did his routine with a better clocking of 51.34 seconds. Al-Eid clocked 53.12 seconds.

Kamal Bahamdan finished third behind Prince Badr and El-Eid, while Abdullah Al-Sharbatly and Fahd Al-Juaid clinched the fourth and fifth positions respectively.

Badreeq presented the cup to Prince Badr at the end of the tournament. Sami Al-Nuhait, SEF secretary-general, said the sport enjoys the full support and appreciation from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan. He said that King Abdullah had advised the national equestrian team in a meeting last week to uphold the Saudi honor and reputation in representing the Kingdom in international competitions abroad.

Body Building and Weightlifting: The body building national team will participate at the 14th men’s and 10th youth Arab championships starting today in Muscat, Oman.

Waleed Al-Rasheed, one of the Saudi Bodybuilding Federation members, will join the national team along with Mohammed Al-Zahrani, one of the federation council members. Referee Ayman Shugair and team coach Naji Abdullah will also travel as well as the federation’s administrative staff Abdullah Saad and Mohammed Al-Saad. The national team players are Fadil Tahir, Mohammed Al- Hussain, Malfi Al-Ghamdi, Nouri Al-Naseif, Othman Mohammed, Faisal Al-Qasim, Zaki Al-Rabh, Munir Al-Jassas and Ibrahim Al- Khudair.

Meanwhile, the weightlifting team Al-Tarajji from Qatif will represent the Kingdom at the Arab Clubs Championship set for April 22 to 25 in Jordan.