JEDDAH, 17 June 2007 — Prince Khalid ibn Abdullah, Al-Ahli academy president and an honorary member at Al-Ahli club, awarded a contract to Samir Radwan, owner of Samir Radwan Company for Building and Construction Ltd., to build a new center for youth and juvenile footballers of Ahli club. The prince also awarded a contract to Al-Khateeb Architectural Office to supervise the project. A 3,600 square meters plot has been allocated for the project that will begin in a month’s time. The center will have three floors including a car parking area in the basement. To honor late Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal, the center will be named after him.

Al-Salhi Second in 800m in Oslo

JEDDAH, 17 June 2007 — Saudi athlete Mohammed Al-Salhi finished second in the 800 meters in the IAAF Golden League 2007 event held in Oslo, Norway, on Friday. Al-Salhi clocked 1:44.89 secs. Kuwait’s Mohammad Al-Azemi finished first in 1:44.56 secs, while Uganda’s Abraham Chepkirwok finished third by clocking 1:44.95 secs. Al-Salhi’s coach Saad Shaddad was not happy with his athlete’s placing. Al-Salhi has the ability to place first, Shaddad said, adding that he would perform well to qualify in the next competition on July 6 in Paris.

Saudi National Athletics Team to Leave for Syria

JEDDAH, 17 June 2007 — The Saudi national athletics team will fly today to Syria to take part in the second Arab Championship for Youth, from June 20-25 in Damascus. The delegation consists of administrators in addition to athletes. Members of the team are: Saeed Jabran, Faisal Al-Bishi (100m), Faisal Al-Bishi, Abdullah Al-Khaldi (200m), Faris Sharahili (400m), Adil Al-Nassir (800m), Abdullah Al-Khalidi, Abdullah AbuKhdaim (110m hurdles), Ahmed Al-Bishi, Hamid Al-Bishi (400m hurdles), Imad Nour (1,500m), Ali Al-Aboud (2,000 hurdles and 3,000m), Khalid Al-Agbi, Nawwaf Al-Yami (long jump), Majeed Gahis, Ahmed Faraj (high jump), Mansour Masrahi (triple jump), Abdullah Marzoug, Khalid Kedallah (shot put), Sharid Al-Doussari, Yahya Al-Shahin (discus throw), Abdulrahman Al-Amri (hammer), Duaij Al-Sagi (pole vault), Nawwaf Al-Rawi and Sadiq Al-Hamad (octathlon). This is the second-string team as the first youth team consisting of 17 athletes is in Poland for training to prepare for World Cup for Youth in Czech Republic from July 7-15.

6,500 Athletes for 11th Pan Arab Games

JEDDAH, 17 June 2007 — Officials at the 11th Pan Arab Games organizing committee announced that this year the games in Egypt would break a record with the participation of 6,500 including 550 alone from Saudi Arabia in 31 games scheduled from Nov. 11-25. They also announced the distribution of the games amongthe seven hosts cities as follow; swimming, water polo, cycling, squash, hockey, football, athletics, karate, cue sports, taekwondo, boxing, volleyball, handball, tennis and table tennis in (Cairo), camel race in (North Sinai), basketball, football, sailing and canoe in (Alexandria), football in (Port Saeed), football in (Esmailia), weightlifting in (Aswan) and wrestling in (Asyout).

Meanwhile, Shamel Company, owned by Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal, president of the Saudi Athletics Federation, has won the exclusive media coverage for the championship.