JEDDAH, 29 December 2006 — One of the year’s biggest events was when Saudi Arabia qualified for the World Cup 2006 in Germany. Saudi Arabia qualified having been drawn in a relatively easy group with Kuwait, Uzbekistan and South Korea as rivals. The joy was short-lived though when the Kingdom failed to advance past the group stage in the World Cup finals.
Happily, the year has been guaranteed to end on a bright note when Team Saudi Arabia scored unprecedented success in the Asian Games recently with eight gold and six bronze medals.
Also, in September the Saudi National Football Team with Special Needs won the 4th Football World Cup for People with Disabilities in Leverkusen, Germany.
In the Cup qualifiers, Saudi Arabia tied with Uzbekistan 1-1 in Uzbekistan; they then went on to win against South Korea 2-0 in Dammam and tied 0-0 against Kuwait in Kuwait. In the second leg match Saudi Arabia defeated Kuwait 3-0 in Riyadh, won vs. Uzbekistan 3-0 in Riyadh again and qualified early for the World Cup. The Saudi national team then won their last match against South Korea 1-0 in South Korea.
Landing in Group H with Spain, Ukraine and Tunisia, many were hopeful of a Saudi repeat performance of 1994 in USA when the country qualified for the second round thinking that the only obstacle was Spain. Saudi Arabia’s opening match was promising as Tunisia took the lead but the Saudis equalized and scored a second goal. The match points almost came out in favor of the Saudi team were it not for an equalizer at the last moments of the match.
Being newcomers to the World Cup, Ukraine, were deemed not a threat to Saudi Arabia. It was not so as the Ukrainian team shocked the Saudis with a 4-0 win in rainy weather. The Saudis put the blame on a slippery field. With this huge defeat, the Saudis lost hope of qualifying to the second round given that the last team they had to face was powerhouse Spain whose team includes many professional football players. The game nevertheless ended 1-0 in favor of Spain. The Saudi team finished last with only 1 point.
The final match against Holland ended in a 9-8 victory for the Saudi team.
It was not easy to beat Holland, the 1994 and 2002 champions, but the message that the disadvantaged Saudi side wanted to convey was that they could win in spite of their poor living conditions and mental disabilities. The 1998 gold medal went to England and now for the first time it was won by Saudi Arabia from among 16 teams participating in the tournament. The Saudi finish this year in the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar surpassed that of the 2002 Busan Games by one gold, but more than that the Asiad performance brought much needed publicity and shifted appreciation of the public here to other sports.
The Kingdom entered in 18 sport disciplines and won eight gold and six bronze medals in athletics, equestrian, karate, volleyball and bowling.
Although the football and basketball teams begged off as they were preparing for the Gulf Cup, the Saudi athletics team got the largest number of medals. The first five gold medals went to Yahya Habeeb who won the men’s 100m, Hamdan Al-Bishi who won the men’s 400m, Sultan Al-Hebshi who won the men’s shot put, Hussain Taher Al-Saba who won the men’s long jump and the men’s 4x400 relay team, while the two bronze were won by Sultan Al-Dawoudi in the men’s discus throw and Ahmed ibn Marzouq in the men’s long jump.
Besides a gold medal in the team show jumping event, the talented Saudi volleyball team made a big impact when they beat the previous Asian champions Japan and won a bronze medal for the first time in the history of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
Thamer Al-Malki, 19, made a pitch for karate in the Kingdom when he claimed the bronze in the men’s kumite — 55kg with 19 year-old Bader Al Al-Sheikh doing the same for bowling. Bader was the Saudi athlete to win the most medals at the Doha Games with four. He won the men’s all events gold medal and got a share of the gold in the men’s doubles and the bronze in the men’s trios and men’s team of five event.
Judoka Abdulrahman Al-Hazmi, 20, was also another youth who won three out of five matches and lost only against 2001 and 2003 Iranian world judo champion Arash Miresmaeili first and then against the Korean Kwang Sub Kim in the - 66kg repêchage final. The school sports program has received the proverbial shot in the arm and rising talented athletes are being selected to play at clubs and later at the national level. The school leagues also continue to run smoothly. Youngsters born in 1994 are now getting new support with the new proposal by Prince Nawaf ibn Saad, general supervisor at the organizing committee for Saudi Arabia’s Youth Championship, who wants to start a football league for the youth born after 1994. The Saudi sports landscape is changing as private companies began to sponsor teams in various sports beginning chiefly with football. The profits received from football matches for example goes to the clubs playing; a venture through which clubs are now thriving and attracting businessmen as investors.
There are around 24 Saudi sports federations which run under the umbrella of the Saudi Arabian National Olympic Committee. These include football, basketball, volleyball, handball, water polo, swimming, tennis, athletics, gymnastic, cycling, judo, taekwondo, karate, weightlifting and bodybuilding, squash, boxing, wrestling, equestrian, shooting, bowling, aerial sports, special needs, golf and sports for all. In addition, there are a few committees that will become federations as soon as their procedures finish. These include billiards, snooker and car racing committees. The Saudi Arabia Sports Medicine Association and the Saudi Arabian Physical Education and Sport Federation are attached agencies of SANOC.
SANOC Assistant Secretary General Fahad Al-Athel told Arab News that when it comes to coaching, the nationality of coaches does not matter at all. “What we care about is who will benefit our teams and improve their skills, regardless of whether it is a Saudi or a foreigner,” he said.
Thus many of the Saudi athletes who participated at the Asian Games agreed that there are many Saudi coaches with excellent skills. Many of the Saudi coaches who were sent abroad for training could be seen to have improved. Yet foreign coaches also have a huge amount of skills to pass on, said Mohammed Al-Qaree, a Saudi athlete.
Dealing with foreigners was another way of enhancing the performance of Saudi coaches. Saudi volleyball team manager Saleh Saad Al-Qasem said, “I for sure learned a lot from dealing with the Serbian coach Radoslav Svircev.”
“He is the one who would sacrifice anything for his team,” said Saudi Athletics Federation President Prince Nawaf ibn Mohammed. Thus Al-Qasem, who although wanted to take a period of relaxation after three years of intensive work and after the Asian Games, now continues to coach and administrate at the Saudi Volleyball Federation due to his team players requesting him to stay on.
According to Prince Nawaf, Al-Qasem and his team, as well as the bowling and athletics teams, are role models for all other Saudi national teams. The training courses abroad were not only for coaches, but referees as well. A proof of their improvement, fairness and high levels of officiating games was their participation at the Asian Games upon the recommendations of the Olympic Council of Asia.
According to General Secretary of Saudi Arabian Anti-Doping Committee (SAADC) Bader Al-Saeed, besides the performance and achievements of athletes, this year witnessed a huge increase in the awareness among athletes about the use of steroids. Excluding the weightlifting case where some of the athletes bought, used and sold steroids and were punished “the year was totally free of any doping cases.” The 9th Congress of the Asian Federation of Sports Medicine (AFSM2006), which was held in Riyadh in November, was further proof of how sports medicine is in the Kingdom. The congress ran with the participation of Dr. Saleh Al-Konbaz, general-secretary at the Saudi Sports Medicine Federation and chairman of the Administrative Committee and 100 more international attendees from foreign sports federations, scientists and doctors who specialized in sports medicine.
The women had their own role to play in sports in 2006. During the World Cup finals they thronged coffee shops to watch matches and cheer their favorite teams. Their culture and tradition did not dictate women to not play football, tennis and basketball and ride horses whether in the Kingdom or abroad. Its just that they do not want to cross their cultural limits and their participation was not official and limited to colleges and schools tournaments and was done only in closed gatherings attended by women.
