JEDDAH, 30 May 2004 — LG Electronics is planning to organize a table tennis tournament in the Eastern Province.
This follows the success of the 3rd LG Table Tennis Tournament, which ended here with a prize distribution ceremony at Alhamra Sofitel Hotel on Friday.
Arab News is strong in the Eastern Province and will be delighted to support an LG Table Tennis tournament there, as it did here, its Editor in Chief Khaled A. Al-Maeena, said while speaking as the guest of honor at the ceremony.
“We feel great to be part of such tournaments. We’ve good relations with companies to promote sports and discover talent,” Al-Maeena said, adding that Arab News would be happy to cooperate with LG in organizing the first Eastern Province TT tournament like it has done here. He congratulated winners of the tournament and later gave away trophies and prizes to winners of both Singles and Doubles events.
He emphasized that newspapers and other media had a social role to play aside from disseminating information on world events. “The role of the media is all the more important in today’s world...to bring together people of different thoughts and opinions.”
LG General Manager C.K. Cho thanked Jeddah Table Tennis League (JTTL) for its outstanding organizational skills, and LG distributors United Yousef M. Naghi Est. and H.G. Ibrahim Shaker Co. for their support and participation. “I attribute the success of the tournament to them and also to its participants and JTTL, especially its President Asadullah Ghalib,” Cho said. This was his first experience of such an event in the Kingdom and was pleased with the interest the tournament created.
“I was able to witness some matches and it convinced me that there is a lot of talent here and so should try to explore other regions,” he said, adding that a similar Eastern Province tournament is being planned in September. “It will be a marathon tournament,” he said.
Table Tennis is a game of technique and precision, requires expertise and perfection, and LG represents all these qualities. “We believe in high quality and perfection. We believe in precision and high standards of technology and LG will remain in the lead with its technology.”
Ghalib termed the tournament as “extremely successful” and congratulated participants and the LG management. With the announcement of the tournament, 172 players were registered. Of them, 160 finally participated. Sixteen more entries were received after the closure of registration but were not accepted as the schedule of matches was already drawn.
Matches were held every Friday from April 23 to May 28. Players representing 15 nationalities competed in 150 matches in both singles and doubles categories. “I’ve received over 70 phone calls from the Eastern and Central regions requesting us to invite them for our future programs,” Ghalib said.
LG Deputy General Manager S.M. Arshad said an official announcement of LG’s first TT tournament in the Eastern Province would be made in early June.
Arshad said the tournament held for the third year in succession here had helped in promoting camaraderie and brotherhood. “The credit goes to participants for their enthusiasm and sportsmanship.” He also had a word of appreciation for Shahid Haider, a senior executive of Team Advertising, for attending and overseeing matches over eight weekends, Sol Bou-Nacklie and Wael I. Hamadeh, vice president and national marketing manager respectively of H.G. Ibrahim Shaker Co. Ltd., H.K. Seo, managing director, LG Division, United Yousef M. Naghi, and Ghalib for their support and cooperation.
Trophies and prizes were presented to the following winners: Suleman Al-Shehry of Bajaba Electronics (Singles Championship), Mansoor Abdul Rehman and Syed Shah Alam of Bajaba Electronics (Doubles Championship), Danial P. Santos (best scoring average), Nasir Uddin Khan (11 years old, junior most player), Mohammad Farooq Qureshi (60 years old, senior most player), Mohammad Atif (best sportsman), Dr. Rehan Khan and Aleem Rauf (best umpires), Amin Khan and Faheem Khan (organizational support), Irfan Ahmed Rafiq (consolation trophy), Azeem Uddin Hamid and Syed Ataullah of Arabian Food Supplies Company (Doubles runner-up), and Abdul Rehman of Alhamrani Fuchs Petroleum (Singles runner-up).
