JEDDAH, 6 November 2007 — The Saudi delegation returned from Macau where they competed in the 2nd Asian Indoor Games and placed 12th in a field of 32 teams. They won four medals — three golds and one silver from athletics.
The nine-day event ended on Saturday with the Kingdom represented by 68 athletes in five events namely athletics, cue sports, Futsal, short course swimming (25m), and bowling. China were the overall champions with a massive haul of 102 medals, while second place went to Thailand with 69, and third place to Hong Kong with 35 medals.
Yahya Al-Ghaysh delivered the silver medal for Saudi Arabia on the fifth day of the competition when he clocked 6.56 seconds in the men’s 60m. The following day long jumper Hussain Al-Sabaa won the gold in a new games record of 7.93 meters.
“I was aiming at a new record and if I had a better concentration I would have been able to score even better but anyhow I am glad I succeeded to set a new record and honor my nation,” said Al-Sabaa.
“Now we have to look forward to the 11th Pan Arab Games in Egypt because it is one of the most important events for us as Arabs and we will work hard to meet the expectations.”
The two other gold medals were courtesy of Sultan Al-Hebshi in shotput and the 4 X 400m relay team. Al-Hensi threw the iron ball over a winning distance of 18.99, while the quartet of cousins Hamid and Hamdan Al-Beshi, Ali Al-Deraan and Yousif Masrahi raced home in a new games record of 3:11.29.
The Saudi bowlers failed to perform as expected with Hassan Al-Shaikh placing a mere 8th in the men’s singles and the doubles pair of Bader and Hassan Al-Shaikh unable to advance past the quarterfinals.
In snooker, Nezar Aseeri succeeded to qualify from the round of 64 to 32 where he lost to Sri Lanka Hameed Shahull 4-2. In the men’s snooker team event the Saudis beat Korea 3-0 and Iraq 3-1 in the quarter finals but were defeated by China 3-1 in the semifinals. Essam Almulla made the round of 32 in the men’s 9-ball pool singles but lost against Taipei Shun Yang Ching 11-2 in the round of 16.
The Saudi swimmers bombed out as well. Yousif Al-Yousif and veteran Ahmed Al-Kudmani both failed to progress past the quarterfinal stage. Al-Yousif placed fourth in the 100-m men’s backstroke with a clocking of 1:00.1, while Al-Kudmani was second in the men’s 50-m breaststroke 50 meter in 28.86 during the preliminaries.
Futsal was a new event in the competition and the Saudis joined to gain experience. The game is a variant of football but played indoor with two teams of five players each including the goalkeeper. The ball that used is slightly heavier and smaller than the normal football.
Being first timers, the Saudis were placed in Group C where they lost their first three matches against Lebanon 5-2, Iran 15-1, and Iran 4-0. Their lone win was against Kyrgyzstan 12-5.
