DOHA, 11 December 2006 — Saudi Arabia’s equestrian team continue their quest for medals in the second round of the individual and team show jumping event today, the penultimate day of athletics in which the home-grown Saudi athletes aim to increase their Asian Games medal haul at the Khalifa Stadium.
The overachieving men’s volleyball team test their mettle against Asia’s No. 1 Japan in the quarterfinal match a the Al-Rayyan Indoor Hall.
At the Equestrian Jumping Arena Khaled Al-Eid and his horse Al-Riyadh will start at 9 a.m. in the individual 2nd qualifier along with Prince Abdullah ibn Miteb on Saudia, Kamal Bahamdan on Campus 8 and Abdullah Al-Sharbatly on Hugo Gesmeray. The team second qualifier in the show jumping is also on tap today.Looking to add to the Kingdom’s athletics medal tally are Mubarak Atta, Ali Al-Deraan, Mohammed Al-Salhi and the men’s 4X100 relay to be anchored by newly-crowned Asia’s fastest man Hassana Yahya Habeeb.
Atta and Al-Salhi, both 25, run the heats of the men’s 110m hurdles starting at 9 a.m. Al-Deraan and Al-Salhi, who are both 20 and two of the youngest on the team, carry the Saudi hopes of another medal in the men’s 800 meters final. The Saudi quartet in the 100m relay hold an impressive record of 41.48 which they hope to break at this Games.
With nothing to lose and everything to gain the Saudi spikers square up against the Japanese at 6 p.m. The volleyball team enter the match riding the momentum of a four-game winning streak in the preliminaries. In four matches the team went the full five sets only against Kuwait and beat Lebanon in three straight sets and India in four sets.
