The World Cup-bound Kingdom national soccer team are in Holland where they will stay for two weeks of intensive training and friendlies against Belgium on May 11 and Togo on May 17. Prior to the trip the team paid a courtesy call to Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, president of both the General Presidency of Youth Welfare and Saudi Football Federation at his office in Riyadh.
While in training, the team had been requested to fill up a players’ poll to monitor the health and fitness of each player.
Marcos Paqueta, the Saudi national team coach, admired the enthusiasm and commitment shown by the players during the trainings.
Saudi National Teams Receive Awards: On Sunday, Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal, deputy president at the Youth Welfare and Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee, honored the national billiard and snooker team for winning the gold medal at the second Gulf Tournament that was held in Al-Khobar. He also honored the national judo team that garnered first place at the 9th Gulf tournament in Riyadh.
The prince also cited the junior judo team for taking home the second place trophy at the second Arab tournament held in Sana’a, Yemen. There were other achievements in the Gulf and Arab levels by the Saudi athletes, as it was the turn of the athletics team on Monday to be honored by the prince for their victory in the 10th Arab Track and Field Championships in Algeria. On the same day Prince Nawaf received at his office members of the karate team that placed second at the first Arab Championship in Egypt.
The water sports team had their share of awards too after winning a number of gold medals at the 10th Gulf Championship in Qatar.
Capping a big memorable week for Saudi sports were the fencers and table tennis team who respectively won the silver at the Asian Championship in Kuwait and gold a the 20th Club Championships in the UAE.
Meanwhile, following the request of Prince Sultan, all the staff of sports federations and clubs had participated since Saturday in the traffic safety awareness campaign.
The campaign will run for a month, said Youth Welfare Deputy President Mansour Al- Khudairi.
Camel Race: Al-Jouf Province Minister Ahmed Al-Sheikh had awarded the winners who participated on Friday at the Skaka monthly camel race using robot jockeys at the Hajjan Field at Khawaa Road. The winners in the three races were Al-Mansour owned by Attallah Al-Shirar, Al-Sinafi owned by Abir Al-Shammari and Rahifan owned by Mubarak Al-Shirari. Prizes totaling SR12,000 were given away along with gift items and trophies. Al-Hajjan fields at Al- Jouf are considered the first to implement the robot system since the beginning of this year to prevent the children who rode these camels from falling. The robot is attached to the camel’s back and is operated by a remote control.
Jeddah Marathon: Under the patronage of Prince Mishaal ibn Majid and with the theme ‘Jeddah With no Drugs nor Smoking,’ the Jeddah marathon race was held on Tuesday.
Around 5, 000 participants joined the race organized by the Iman Society for Cancer Patients Care and the Ministry of Education at the Corniche Area. The 4-kilometer race’s starting point was at the cars square and finished at the Nawras square. Eight first aid booths and 30, 000 bottles of water were distributed along the way. In addition to this race, a smaller one was held in which the handicapped had the chance to participate.
Equestrian Tournaments: At the Arab Equestrian League, the Saudi equestrian Ramzi Al-Duhami and Abdullah Al-Sharbatly had qualified to represent the region in the Equestrian World Cup in Aachen, Germany. Al-Duhami finished 9th place at the 145 and 150 cm high hurdles race while Al-Sharbatly was 11th.
Joining Al-Duhami and Al-Sharbatly in the prestigious event were fellow Saudi riders Prince Abdullah ibn Miteb, Prince Faisal Al-Shallan, Khalid Al-Eid, Adnan Al-Baitoni and Kamal Bahamdan.
Najran hosted on Saturday the 12th equestrian tournament at the equestrian field in Tislal. The race consisted of five races.
The first race winner was Al-Faiz owned by Mohammed Ishaag. Al-Adeed owned by Askar Al-Sagour ruled the second race with Najm Teslal and Taiel, both owned by Al- Hudn Stable, winning the third and fourth races. The fifth race went to Al-Olaya owned by Salih Al-Rizg.
