JEDDAH, 27 May 2008 — Equestrian Prince Abdullah ibn Miteb was named Most Distinguished Athlete during the second annual Mobily and Arriyadiyah daily Awards on Sunday night in Riyadh.
Sponsored by Mobily and Arriyadiyah, Arab News sister publication, the prestigious and most awaited event honors the country’s outstanding athletes of the year.
For his notable achievements in the sport of equestrian, Prince Abdullah was bestowed the top award to lead the list of awardees.
Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal, deputy president of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare and president of the Saudi Equestrian Federation, awarded Prince Abdullah with the trophy and the SR 100, 000 cash prize courtesy of sponsors Mobily and Arriyadiyah.
Prince Abdullah, in his speech, thanked the Custodian of the Two Holey Mosques King Abdullah, and Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, president of the GPYW and his deputy Prince Nawaf for their continued and unlimited support to equestrian and other sports.
He then donated his financial award to the four young equestrians on the national team, saying this is in order to motivate them and encourage them to excel considering the expenses involved maintaining their horses.
Long jumper Mohammed Al-Khuwaildi placed second and UNICEF Ambassador of Goodwill Yazeed Al-Rajihi, rally driver, came third.
Speaking to Arab News, Al-Khuwaildi said, “I believe my achievements deserve more than a trophy considering what I’ve been going through at my company, Aramco, while I do training camps. Despite all that I hold the Asian No. 1 ranking and fourth among world champions since I started playing and first in the top of the list in world rankings this year.” “Though the idea of this award was to encourage us, I’m sorry to say it was very disappointing and did not serve the purpose it was made for,” Al-Khuwaildi said.
Other athletes echo Al-Khuwaildi’s sentiments.
One athlete said, “It was not fair that around eight awards were handed to footballers and only three to athletes from other sports, two of which were without cash awards. We have a lot of stars in the team sports such as basketball, volleyball, and handball, and water polo. They were supposed to have their own awards separately.” Another said, “Last year we said maybe it was not fair because it was the first time, but while seeing this year’s awards, it seems it is not going to improve or help athletes as the organizers claim.” Instead of handing the cash prize to the most distinguished athlete alone, second and third places also deserve additional financial awards, said another athlete.
“I thought they were counting all the season achievements, but it turned out they neglected many recent victories of various athletes including Kingdom No. 1 golfer Othman Almulla who won the Qatar Open in January and Pan Arab and Red Sea Open in July last year,” stressed yet another athlete.
Meanwhile, the Most Promising Footballer award of a golden football trophy and SR 25,000 cash went to Abdulaziz Al-Dousari of Al-Hilal club. Second place went to Shabab’s goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah who received the silver football trophy, and third place went to Hilal’s Ahmed Al-Faridi who received the bronze football trophy.
The 2007 Asian football’s Best Striker Yassir Al-Qahtani of Hilal was adjudged Best Footballer fr which he won SR 70,000, and golden football trophy. The silver football and bronze football trophies awarded for the second and third places went to Najran striker Al-Hassan Al-Yami and Shabab striker Nassir Al-Shamrani, who also won an extra prize of SR50,000 as the Premier League top scorer.
Khalid Al-Rajeeb of Hajar club received the first division league top scorer award.
