DOHA, 8 December 2006 — “I expect gold or silver medals to be won by the eight athletes participating tomorrow. The top bets for medals are Hussain Al-Saba and Ahmed bin Marzouq.”
Thus declared Saudi athletics team manager Khalid Al-Khaldi yesterday in an obvious mission statement that was meant to show all and sundry they intend to better their seven-gold output from the Busan Games.
The Games athletics program, where the Kingdom are to field an almost full complement of 33 athletes, began yesterday with the 20-kilometer walk final in both divisions.
Besides the athletics and bowling, Saudi Arabia are also seeing action today in two ball games, shooting and boxing.
The quintet of Al-Sheikh brothers, Bader, 19, and Hassan, 16, who won the doubles gold and shared the bronze with Faisal Al-Juraifaini in the trios, Ahmed Al-Hdyan, Yousef Akbar and Al-Juraifani, play the second block of six games today in the five-man team event.
Al-Saba, 27, and teammate Marzouq, 27, compete in separate qualifying heats in the long jump at Khalifa stadium. The Asian record for the long jump competition is 8.48 set by Saudi Mohammed Al-Khuwaildi on July 2 in Sotteville, France.
Mohammed Shaween, 20, is entered in the men’s 1500m 1st round heat 1. The Asian record for this competition is 3:29.14 by the Bahraini, Rashid Ramzi, 26, who is to start in the same competition today.
Yahya Al-Ghahes, 20, and Yahya Habeeb, 22, will participate in heat 1 and 3 in first round of the the men’s 100 meters where Japan’s Ito Kohi holds the Asian record.
For the men’s 400m 1st round heats the Saudis will have Hamdan Al-Bishi, 25, and Ismail Al-Sabani, 17.
Ali Al-Amri, 19, is expected to face stiff opposition in the men’s 3000 meters steeplechase final. Qatari Saif Shaheen set the the Asian record of 7:53.63 in this event in Brussels, Belgium, in Sept. 3, 2004.
Saudi shooters Majed Al-Tamimi, 35, Saied Al-Mutairi, 38, and Abdulaziz Al-Hamlan, 40 will test their skills in the men’s skeet qualification. Three others are competing in the men’s 25m center fire pistol competition at Lusail Shooting Range namely Saied Al-Qahtani, 34, Hadi Al-Qahtani, 42, and Mohammed Al-Amri, 29. After losing their match with Syria yesterday, the Saudi handball team play their fifth match in the preliminary league Group C against Iran at Al-Gharrafa Indoor Hall at 8 p.m. The water polo team look to duplicate their first match win against Hong Kong when they meet Uzbekistan today in the preliminary Group B at Al-Sadd Aquatic Center.
Boxer Ali Al-Ahmary, 20, takes on Filipino Godfrey Castro in the men’s light fly 48kg quarterfinal bout at Aspire Hall.
