DOHA, 4 December 2006 — On a day when Saudi Arabia faltered in many fronts in the Asian Games delegation head Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal gave a short five-minute pep talk to the athletes and encouraged them to do their best and wish them well.
Prince Nawaf, deputy-president of both the General Presidency of Youth Welfare and Saudi Football Federation, left after meeting with the Saudi contingent at the Athletes Village.
Although the Kingdom are vying in 18 sport disciplines represented by 149 athletes it is the exposure and experience that an event of this magnitude provides where Saudi sports officials hope would benefit the national players in the long term. Despite the slow progress in their Asiad campaign, Saudi Arabian National Olympic Committee Assistant Secretary General Fahad Al-Athel said that though the first day did not bring many victories, the competition is all for the benefit of the players as pit skills against these experienced teams and keep on learning from them.
“There is still hope for our team if we worked hard and be awarded and we do pray for them and wish them the best always,” said Al-Athel.
The Kingdom bets did battle for medals yesterday in the men’s singles event in bowling and swimming as well as men’s cycling road race, weightlifting and shooting but came out empty-handed. The men’s volleyball team ran their record to 3-0 following victories yesterday over Macau and UAE. They defeated Kuwait on Saturday and are now only two games away of sweeping the preliminary pool A matches at Al Rayyan Indoor Hall. The Saudis opened their bid in handball with a 33-29 victory over UAE at Al-Gharrafa Indoor Hall in the men’s preliminary league Group C match. The Saudis rode a hot first half to beat UAE. The first half ended 17-11 in favor of the Saudis and the second half 18-16 for UAE.
Ace swimmer Ahmad Al-Kudmani, Saudi Arabia’s brightest hope for a medal, was second in his qualifying heat in the men’s 50-meter breaststroke but eventually finished out of the medals as did Bader Al-Muhana in the men’s 100-m butterfly at the Hamad Aquatic Center.
Kudmani, 27, clocked 29.20 seconds to finish sixth in the event where Kazakhstan’s Valdislav Polyakov won the gold in 28.29 seconds. Al-Muhana failed to advance past the heat with a sixth-place finish in 56.92 seconds.
In shooting where 13 marksmen are carrying the Saudi colors Khalid Al-Anazi and Abdullah Al-Bogami in the men’s rifle prone, Hadi Al-Qahtani and Ayedh Al-Malki in the men’s 10-meter air pistol and Khalid Al-Zamil I the men’s 50-meter rifle prone all failed to make the grade after the eliminations at the Lusail Shooting Range. Al-Anazi, 36, placed 23rd with 578.0 points Al-Bogami 25th with 575.0, Al-Qahtani, 42, 25th with 568, and Al-Malki, 39, 44th with 558. Al-Zamil 15th with 569.0.
Of the two Saudi cyclists in the men’s road race Ahmed Al-Assiri, 19, did not finish but Fathi Al-Muslim ranked 27th with a time of 4:10:54 at the Cycling Street Circuit.
In weightlifting Ali Al-Dhilab in the 62kg category hoisted 131kg in the snatch, 155kg in the clean and jerk and 286kg total to place 7th at the Al-Dana Banquet Hall. The six Saudi bowlers entered in the men’s singles final, a six-game series affair, also finished out of the medals with Hassan Al-Shaikh the best-placed among them in seventh position with 1,303 total pinfalls. Yousif Akbar, 21, placed 39th , Bader Al-Shaikh 59th, Faisal Al-Juraifani 59th, Ahmed Al -Hdyan 37th and 15-year old Faisal Sugati 54th.
