JEDDAH, 29 April 2008 — Saudi Arabia’s top two water polo teams, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli, are seeing action in the 6th Asian Water Polo Championship for Clubs to be held in Kuwait from May 5 to 9. To prepare for the tournament, defending champions Ittihad left for Greece on Sunday for a training camp, while Ahli are to spend time training in Jeddah before also traveling to Greece on Saturday. Yugoslav Ivo Vich is playing on loan to Ittihad. Ahli brought veteran Saudi water polo athlete Nasser Al-Dughether and Ahmed Al-Shammari of Al-Qadisia to their lineup in addition to Khalid Al-Harbi, who took a leave from his studies in New Zealand to join his Ahli teammates.

Saudi Cagers in Arab and GCC Tilts

JEDDAH, 29 April 2008 — Al-Ittihad and Al-Ansar both had slow starts in separate campaigns abroad. Ittihad managed to win one game against Dalasal Al-Quds of Palestine 106-83 but dropped matches against Al-Ansar of Libya 80-82, and Al-Maghrib Al-Fasi of Morocco 91-72 in the Arab Basketball Championship for Clubs in Jordan. Ansar, in Qatar for the GCC Basketball Championship for Clubs, got beat by Al-Qadisia of Kuwait 73-84 and Al-Rayyan of Qatar 55-72. Ansar’s lone win came when they beat Nazwa of Oman 77-65 in the team’s first game on Sunday. They face Al-Ahli of Bahrain in their next game.

Kingdom Tennis Championship

JEDDAH, 29 April 2008 — The Kingdom Tennis Championship ended on Friday with prizes being awarded to the top four players in four age groups — under 10, under 12, under 14 and under 18 — as well as the first division. The under 10 winners were Sari Al-Matar (Al-Tarf), Musaed Al-Azzam (Al-Hilal), Rajhi Al-Rajhi (Al-Jeel), and Ali Saeed (Al-Safa). Bader Al-Amran (Al-Hilal), Abulrahman Al-Azzam (Al-Hilal), Abdulatif Al-Rajhi (Al-Jeel), and Hussain Al-Sadiq (Al-Safa) filled the top four spots in the under 12 category. Al-Waleed Al-Sayyah (Dammam Training Center), Nawaf Al-Sultan (Al-Hilal), Ahmed Al-Rajih (Al-Jeel), and Majid Al-Sheikh (Al-Qadisia) were the winners in under 14. In the first division, Omar Al-Thaqib came first (Al-Washm), second place went to Abdulaziz Ibrahim (Al-Ibtissam), third to Abdulilah Al-Hamad (Al-Washm) and Majid Al-Jaroudi (Al-Qadisia).

GPYW Fencing Cup

JEDDAH, 29 April 2008 — The Eastern Province organized the General Presidency of Saudi Youth Welfare Cup fencing championship for men at the Prince Saud ibn Jluwi Sport City.

The tournament was held under the auspices of Saudi Fencing Federation. Yahya Hazzazi (Al-Sahil) won first place in the foil event, Mohammed Al-Jizani (Okaz) took the epee, while Adil Basheir from Al-Riyadh Club ruled the sabre event. Bandar Al-Salih, president of the fencing federation, said several committees under the supervision of Secretary-General Salih Al-Raqi would be formed to run the final local championship on the Prince Sultan ibn Fahd Cup on May 28.