JEDDAH, 9 September 2007 — Al-Ittihad Club’s table tennis stars brought glory to their club after winning the GCC Table Tennis Championship by downing Nasr of UAE in the final. The event was held in Bahrain. This is Ittihad’s seventh gold medal in the event. Ittihad won all their games and collected eight tournament points. Abdulaziz Al-Abbad of Ittihad outplayed Rashid Mohammed of Nasr from UAE 3-0 in Group A. Naif Al-Judai of Ittihad crashed 2-3 to Rashid Abdulhamid in Group B. In Group C, Ittihadi’s Fahd Al-Houtti blanked Hamid Seif 3-0, while in Group D Al-Abbad outfought Abdulhamid 3-1. Ittihad also outplayed Al-Salimiya of Kuwait 3-2. Al-Abbad meanwhile dedicated this victory to his club President Mansour Al-Balawi and said, “As a team we agreed to consider every game as a final and were determined to win it and this was what happened. This victory goes to Al-Balawi due to his passion and support to this sport.”
Ahli Close to Sign Basketball Coach
JEDDAH, 9 September 2007 — Al-Ahli Club’s basketball administration, supervised by Khalid Al-Shaafi, is now close to signing a new basketball coach. The choices for the new coach, who will replace Egyptian Adil Sabri, came to an end as two were nominated — one from Tunisia and the other from Croatia. Meanwhile, the club has decided to allocate a budget for each of its sports that include bringing in coaches and professionals athletes from abroad.
Nasr Beat Ahli in Friendly
JEDDAH, 9 September 2007 — Al-Nasr Club defeated Al-Ahli 2-1 in a friendly match on Friday at Prince Sultan ibn Fahd Stadium. Hussain Abdulghani of Ahli received a red card in the first half after getting into a fight with one of Nasr’s players. Nasr’s Mohammed Khomais and Brazilian Rinado scored one each while Ali Al-Turki scored the lone goal for Ahli. After the game fans were upset by Ahli’s team performance and called for the resignation of coach Theo Bokeer of Germany.
