DOHA, 8 December 2006 — Saudi Arabia qualified for the quarterfinal in men’s volleyball but suffered their first defeat in four matches in handball in yesterday’s action in the 15th Asian Games.
The sixth day of the Kingdom’s campaign in this biennial multi-event competition yielded mixed results in snooker, while the country’s shooters and boxers, save for one still in the hunt, still were without success.
But the Kingdom hope to add to the two bowling medals, a gold and bronze, when they start battles in athletics today.
The surprising volleyball team easily beat Lebanon in straight sets 25-15, 25-16, 25-15 at Al-Rayan Indoor Hall to set up a round of eight showdown with Asia’s No. 1 Japan on Monday. They qualified first from Pool A with a 4-0 win-loss record. “This is a big step for Saudis to compete against Japan,” said team manager Saleh Al-Qasem in an interview after the match.
It did not matter if they fall, slipped or got injured, these sensational players were simply too much for Lebanon.
Apparently enjoying themselves, the Saudi sextet were inspired by the huge crowd who came to cheer them all the way from Saudi Arabia and egged them on, “ Yakolak...Yakolak...” (He is going to eat you).
The handball players lost to Syria 34-25 in a Group C preliminary match. Veteran internationalist Bander Al-Harbi carried the load for the Saudis but then they succumbed under pressure with a slew of yellow cards slapped on the team. Also, the absence of Yassir told on the team as they were unable to recover after Syria built a big lead.
The coach, however, remained optimistic they would do better against Iran.
Meanwhile, boxer Ahmed Mayouf,19, who fought Song Guk Kim from the Democratic Republic of Korea in the men’s featherweight -57Kg quarterfinal lost via RSC (referee stopped contest) at the Aspire Hall.
In snooker singles, Nezar Asseri beat Indian Yasin Reza Merchant 4-0 in the round of 16, but lost 4-0 to Thailand’s Atthasit Mahitthi in the quarterfinal match.
Over at the Al-Rayyan Hall, the volleyball team celebrated their 4-0 sweep of the preliminary matches in Pool A.
Al-Qasem was at first worried that his boys would relax against the lowly Lebanese.
“When our volleyball team play with a stronger team like India, their performance level goes up but against a weak team their performance tends to be so-so,” said Al-Qasem. “We addressed that problem in our training for this match and the team sustained a strong play from beginning to the end.” He said that losing the match against Lebanon would be a waste of effort of all the previous matches they won.
“I’m so grateful that we won the match. Thank God.”
“We will not panic in our next match with Japan, world No. 8 and Asia No. 1 volleyball team,” he said. “The team will play confident and strong. Japan is a strong team and we have nothing to lose. We will do our best.” He said that they will apply a different strategy for the Japan match and they will study the Japanese team very well.
“We watched some of the Japanese matches trying to know their techniques.”
In a light moment after the Lebanon match, one of the Lebanese team members joked “What is this! You kept beating us all the time in the match today!” then proceeded to congratulate the Saudis to the delight of both sides.
