JEDDAH, 5 May 2008 — For the sixth year running Al-Ittihad table tennis team won the Saudi Table Tennis Super League on Thursday after crushing Al-Ahli 3-1 in the finale at Ittihad football club here.
In winning first place Ittihad received SR30,000, while Ahli took the second-place prize of SR20,000 and Al-Fath club third-place prize of SR10,000.
Ittihad's Abdulaziz Al-Abbad beat Akram Al-Ghamdi of Ahli 3-0, Naif Al-Judai (Ittihad) crushed Mansour Alam (Ahli) 3-1, and Abdulaziz Al-Abbad again downed Khalid Al-Harbi (Ahli) 3-1. Ahli's only victory came when Akram Al-Ghamdi beat Raad Al-Shareif.
"It's been always Al-Ahli and Al-Ittihad who reach the final. Ahli used to pressure us and beat us in matches but this time we managed to down them 3-1," said Al-Abbad of Ittihad. It is great, he added, that for the first time this year Ittihad juveniles, youth and men's teams won the Saudi Super League.
According to Khalid Al-Harbi it was a bit difficult to win against Ittihad because of their big lead from previous matches and "we had to beat them by 3-0. Failing that, the victory would go to Ittihad who also hold the home-court advantage."
In addition, both players agreed the Saudi League ran for more than nine months to the point it became boring and frustrating with up to 30 matches getting postponed due to administration technicalities though there are only eight teams.
"Though the Saudi table tennis players are not progressing a lot, it is a good sign they are maintaining the same level," said Al-Abbad. However, he added, today's generation of players are not passionate about their game as before and the many distractions affect their discipline in training.
"That is why we hope more tournaments with more cash prizes would be organized to attract them and motivate them to improve themselves," said Al-Abbad. "We have few teenagers whom we believe would be Saudi pride within five years but they need to be encouraged," said Al-Harbi.
Al-Abbad then said that in order to improve the skills of the young players, "they have to allow them to compete with older ones to gain experience and this is how I made it from juveniles to youth, and to men at a very early age."
Thanks to national team standouts Al-Abbad and Al-Harbi Saudi Arabia continue to win the Gulf championships for clubs and national teams while finishing not lower than second in Arab championships. The teams are now preparing for Al-Nokhbah Table Tennis championship set for May 28 to 30, in addition to the local singles and doubles championships scheduled at a later date.
