It was yet another eventful year for Saudi sports with a number of achievements in local, national and international championships. Al-Nasr ended their nine-year wait to regain the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Football Championships title when they beat their archrivals Al-Hilal 2-1 in the final at the King Fahd International Stadium in Jeddah on April 2. Al-Hilal entered the final after defeating Al-Ahli in the semifinals 1-0 and Al-Nasr made it to the last four after winning against Al-Shabab 5-4 via the tie-breaker 5-4.
On April 13, Al-Hilal became the Saudi Football League Champions in its final season before it was officially changed to the Saudi Professional League. Both Al-Hilal and Al-Ittihad finished their league matches with 48 points each. However, Al-Hilal was declared winners as they beat Al-Ittihad in the second-leg match by a solitary goal. The first leg between the two ended without a goal being scored. Al-Hilal went into the match against Al-Ittihad in a must-win situation.
Al-Shabab were declared champions of the inaugural Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup of Champions routing Al-Ittihad 3-1 in the final at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh on May 14.Saudi triple jumper Osamah Alshanqiti won the first gold medal in the Olympic history for the Kingdom with a world record-breaking jump of 15.37 meters in the Paralympics on Sept. 9. “I am happy, I am really, really happy because I made it on the last jump,” said the 32-year-old who was extremely excited about his performance after defeating Ukraine jumper Ivan Kytsenko. Alshanqiti also added another silver medal in the long jump.
On Sept. 13, the Saudi Professional League kicked off under the new name, formerly known as the Saudi Football League. Twelve teams took part in this competition with additional two teams advancing from the first division and the last two from the Professional League being relegated to the first division. Al-Ahli became the champion of Gulf Clubs Soccer Championship 2008 after defeating Al-Nasr 3-0 on aggregate after the two-leg finals on Dec. 3.
