CAIRO, 15 November 2007 — Saudi judoka Eissa Majrashi was focused on winning the gold and doing the country proud and indeed his dream came true after he beat his Moroccan opponent yesterday in the under 60 kilograms final of the judo competition on the third day of the 11th Pan Arab Games at the Cairo Stadium Hall 3.
“I was aiming at it and I am of course overwhelmed with this success and to be able to beat three of Africa’s top players who all qualified for Beijing Olympics 2008. I can’t describe it but we have been working hard and training since August,” said Majrashi after his final bout. He said the SR20,000 that he received as financial reward from the Saudi Judo Federation would be dedicated to his mother.
Captain Muhammed Subai, coach of the Saudi judo team, said this result was expected due to Majrashi’s hard work to honor his country always. “Even when we sent him the letter of his participation he replied that he is honored to present his nation and hope to meet his nation’s expectations and that was normal for his noble and humble personality. He is a fine model for athletes who give to his country without asking for anything in return,” said the coach.
“I was sad to see him placed among very difficult teams but I had faith in him and glad he did it. Now my goal is to take him to Beijing soon,” Sabai added.
In addition to the Kingdom’s first gold medal in the history of the Saudi judo, Saudi Arabia also yesterday won the silver medal in the 50-meter breaststroke event in swimming thanks to veteran Ahmed Al-Kudmani who passed the qualifying round in the morning and advanced to the final. Yousif Al-Yousif, however, failed to advance past the preliminaries. The Saudi football national team also won their first game against Sudan 2-0 on goals from Reda Tukkar in the 20th minute and Omar Al-Ghamdi in the 85th minute at the Ismaliah Stadium. The Green Falcons are bracketed in a group alongside Sudan, Egypt, Libya and UAE.
Though Palestine managed to arrive in Egypt yesterday after facing difficulties with the Israeli armed forces there was no way to adjust the team matches and schedule, according to organizers.
Coach Helio dos Anjos was not happy despite the win saying it was the worse the national team ever played considering the Sudanese team played with their Olympic team as against the first team for the Saudi side, and that they could have achieved better result.
The volleyball national team, however, were not very pleased with their performance and ended their campaign in fourth after loosing against hosts Egypt 3-1 in the deciding match for the third and fourth places (19-25, 25-17, 18-25, 25-18) at the Cairo Stadium Hall 2. The team never recovered after they were defeated by Bahrain 1-3 (17-25, 25-11, 16-25, 20-25).
National volleyball team coach Serbian coach Radoslav Svircev said “ we wanted to give the chance for many of the talented athletes to gain experience.”
“Of course we could not expect victory on out first attempt.
These things always take time. They were stressed out since July when their training camp began so I understand them and appreciate what they did. They did their best and I am satisfied with their performance,” he said.
Most of the teams in this championship could not be underestimated, he added. “Our loss the day earlier had put some pressure on the players.” The team fly home, relax for a few days and then enter training camps again to prepare for future competitions, he said.
