JEDDAH, 16 March 2007 — Water polo in Saudi Arabia is trying to keep itself above water. It does not have the kind of popularity that other spectator sports like football or basketball enjoy.
No matter there’s an energetic trio who may yet inject new life into water polo. They are the best water polo athletes of their clubs.
Drum roll, please for left wing Khalid Al-Harbi, 25, (Al-Ahli), right wing Adel Al-Malki, 24, (Al-Ittihad), and right wing Ahmed Al-Shammari, 22, (Al-Qadisiya).
That they accomplished something for the game has much to do with the role played by the administrators and coaches. Together they soldiered on despite the lack of financial support and, sadly, lack of strong commitment from clubs in their training.
The three became the best of friends while playing for the national team and staying together at training camps and championships.
In their younger days this was not exactly the case. Youthful exuberance and aggressiveness made the cut-throat competition between them even fiercer.
“I know I’ll do better and improve when I join these training camps, we dedicate our time to training and thus enhance our performance,” said Al-Shammari.
Al-Harbi was with the national team since 1996. Al-Malki made the grade in 1999 and Al-Shammari in 2001, which was also the year when they played together as a team and won the Asian Water Polo Youth Championship in Hong Kong and placed 16th in the Water Polo World Youth Cup in Kuwait.
That was to be the start of their fruitful togetherness. They finished third during the First Islamic Solidarity Games which the Kingdom hosted in 2004. In 1997 they were the proud runners-up at the Arab Championship in Kuwait and landed third a year after in the same championship in Jordan. Their last international competition was last December’s 15th Asian Games in Doha where they wound up sixth.
The Asian Games gave them a big boost in their careers. For six months prior to the Games they had been shuttling between the western province and Montenegro for training. It was the first time for the whole team to train this long. All agreed about the only thing stressful was when they faced the champions like Hong Kong, Uzbekistan, Japan and China in Asiad.
How did they get into water polo? It all began with the influence of a father or a brother who got them into swimming first and then, their growing interest made them shift from swimming to water polo. Al-Harbi envied two older brothers who enjoyed swimming. Al-Malki is surrounded by six older brothers and a younger brother who all have a penchant for swimming. Two of Al-Malki’s brothers are water polo athletes who also play at Ittihad. Al-Shammari has a twin brother, who was a water polo goalkeeper but is now retired, in addition to two other siblings who also love the game.
Al-Harbi and Al-Malki both started as swimmers at their clubs and each won many medals.
“I was first a diver but broke a bone and could not handle it further, then a swimmer but it was dull, and finally a water polo athlete. With water polo it’s all about total team effort,” said Al-Harbi.
Al-Malki said Al-Ahli coach Ukrainian Serjio’s training methods were encouraging indeed. “He made me love it, I used to finish swimming and then watch water polo team train after us, and it was very attractive and exciting. When he asked me to join them I never regretted it and could not say no,” he said.
Serjio’s wards love the coach’s demeanor on and off the pool.
“He takes the junior and youth athletes in his car or bus to the club and deposit them back home, if someone did not show up, he would call his family and made sure he would come. Serjio is amazing,” said Al-Harbi. The players believe the coach is one of Ahli team’s great assets.
The case with Ittihad is different: the players are kind of laid back. At Qadisiya the coach turnover is very fast making it difficult for players to get along and improve. “It is good we are getting new coaches, but if we get one who spends longer time with us we will have the chance to learn new techniques and adopt it and that would help us more,” said Al-Shammari. “It is not making our performance stable this way.”
Out of pride, they kept their national team medals to themselves, but out of love, their medals won at club events were handed out to their friends and relatives.
Al-Shammari recalls his best match when they outplayed Ahli at the final for the first time and won the Saudi League in 2001 when he was also awarded best player. He got this award back-to-back in 1998 and 1999 in the previous Saudi Leagues. Al-Malki too was awarded best player in 2006, and in 2003 when Ittihad won Al-Nokbah championship. In 1997, and 2002 best player awards went to Al-Harbi as well as the districts best player award in 1998.
“Foreigners abroad made us feel as if we were walking petrol tanks, and they do not know the real world and what we are really getting,” said Al-Harbi.
Finance is a big problem to these clubs. Ahli players get around SR 200 after each match won, in addition to SR 6,000 after wining a championship, but that is not the case with Ittihad.
They were promised SR 5, 000 for their victory in Al-Nokhbah Championship two years ago but only got the money this month. They even stopped giving them the annual SR 250 for transportation and the SR 150 after winning each match.
“That was very useful and encouraging for youth to come and show up for training,” he said.
Qadisiya too suffer the same problem although Nasser Al-Deghather, the team captain, gives the players spending money from time to time. “Without him maybe Qadisiya water polo would be non existent,” he said.
Al-Safa, which is supposedly the oldest club to introduce water polo, suffers too and is without international players due to the financial problem. “They do not have an indoor swimming pool which also makes it harder for the athletes to train during the cold weather. It’s very tough,” said Al-Shammari.
These youngsters have other interests besides water polo. Al-Harbi finished a diploma course in communications is now working on finishing his bachelor’s degree in communications engineering at night and looking for a morning job. He also enjoys playing on his keyboards while spending quality time with family and friends, and he brings this musical instrument along at training camps.
Al-Malki, a Jeddah resident like Al-Harbi, is still in university but joined the marines recently and looks forward to be a businessman in the future. His dream is to play in the Italian Water Polo League and to play football too. “I would even leave water polo for football if I got the right chance,” he said.
Al-Shammari had stopped studying after the intermediate level, but is hell bent on finishing his education even if it means quitting the game. He refused to be unemployed and took a job at the military and works as security guard at a foreigners’ compound in the Eastern Province. He takes the morning and night shifts, and finds time to enjoy his female pet cat Andy.
Water polo according to the players is not yet that popular here. Sometimes they even get embarrassed to introduce themselves as water polo players. They just say they are plain swimmers. “People embarrass us with questions like: What do you do with the ball in the water, do you walk there, what if it was 100m deep, can you take the ball under the water and walk with it!,” said Al-Malki.
Al-Harbi, however, said “Though only three or four finals were aired on TV this helped a lot in spreading awareness. Thanks to the General Secretary at the Saudi Arabian Swimming Federation (SAFS) Ali Oun Al-Zayed who gave it a lot of his attention and support and treated us like his children.”
They wish the Youth Welfare would run water polo like it were a professional sport. This way it would attract more financial support to the clubs and, ergo, the athletes would benefit from the cash windfall and improve their performance.
If they had their way, the trio would like to advertise their matches from the quarterfinal onwards via posters for their teams in the streets even if that meant they have to pay for it.
“It is something we saw in Doha during the Asian Games. The whole city was alive with all sports and athletes’ posters, and we hope this would help our game gain more recognition,” said Al-Malki.
