JEDDAH, 20 May 2007 — After narrowly missing out on the medals in the Asian Judo Championship in Kuwait the Saudi national team are training their sights on competitions in the Gulf and Arab levels.
The team are to enter training camps in Taif June 15 to July 14 and Egypt July 15 to Aug. 5 in preparation for the GCC Judo Championship in Abu Dhabi from Aug. 7 to 9. Up next in the Saudi judokas’ busy international schedule are the Arab Youth Championship, which starts a week after the GCC tourney, and the 11th Arab Games in Egypt in November.
Compared to the 2000 Asian Championship in Hong Kong where they won a silver medal courtesy of Yahya Al-Zahrani in the -90kg category, the best that the Saudis could show in this year’s competition were semifinal finishes from Eisa Majrashi in the 60kg and Abdulrahman Al-Hazmi in the 66kg. Also, the silver medal was the best result in Saudi judo history.
Despite the medal shutout Saudi officials are satisfied with the team’s performance. Saudi national team coach Mohammed Subaai said, “I have been working on a five-year plan to develop the athletes’ performance and I’ve seen the results in front of me in this competition. Thank God.”
“We are very proud of them. I even got many compliments from Korean and Japanese delegation members who were watching and congratulated us on the Saudi judokas’ improving skills.”
The tournament in Kuwait attracted 180 men and 93 women players from more than 30 countries. Turki Muneir, the third Saudi entry in this event in the 81 kg did well too but failed to progress as far as his two teammates. He had been training training abroad for three years.
In the event that ran from May 12 to 17 both Al-Hazmi and Majrashi won their first three matches. In his fifth match for the bronze medal, Al-Hazmi lost against Iranian world champion Arash Miresmaeili and got injured in the process . Majrashi was also injured and lost against Tatsuaki Egusa, 15th Asian Games champion, in another bronze medal match. The Saudi participation in an international event was the first under the new board of directors of the Asian Judo Federation, which won a fresh four-year term. Saudi international referee Moammar Al-Moammar was among those elected as director of referees for West Asia. Kuwaiti Ebeid Al-Anzi was elected as new president of the federation.
