RIYADH: Amaanur Rahman from New Middle East International School, Riyadh, (NMEIS) teamed up with P Yanapong of Thailand to bag gold in the Aspire Qatar cadet and junior International Table Tennis Federation premium junior doubles tournament held in Doha recently.

The in form Rahman held his nerve along with P Yanapong to get the better of B Aboubaker and B Youssef 11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 11-7 in the final.

However, Rahman bowed out in the cadet boys’ singles quarterfinal when he went down to top-seed and doubles partner Yanapong 3-0.

In the same event played in Bahrain, Rahman lost to Abdullah Abdulaziz of Qatar in the quarters 3-1.

Speaking to Arab News, Rahman, who is very excited after his victory for the community school in the Kingdom, said, “It was my first international tournament in Doha and I am very happy to take gold in the event.”

The march was amazing, although we had tough encounters from the first round through the semifinal and the final,” he said.

It was a battle of nerves right throughout the final as the opponents came back strongly after we took the lead. However, we stayed focused on the game and gave our best on every point”.

“Overall I think our top-spin play was the deciding factor, which enabled us to clinch the title,” said the young champ.

The 2015-16 journey has been a very successful year for me, which

included gold in the doubles, singles quarterfinalists in Doha and Bahrain. Winner in sub-junior boys section tournament held by Telangana state in India. Winner in

U-16 boys team and singles at the CBSE cluster meet in Jeddah. Bronze medalist in 77th sub-junior and cadet national and inter-state table tennis championship held in West Bengal. Took part in 77th junior and youth nationals inter-state table tennis championships in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Success for the young man, who hails from the Indian city of Hyderabad

came as a huge surprise with schoolmates who see Rahman a source of inspiration to do well in life, be it academic or co-curricular activities.

Tabassum Farooqi, principal of NMEIS, who is also the patron of

School’s Table Tennis Academy, was extremely happy over the huge success.

Speaking to Arab News, she said, “Rahman has been our student since

nursery, it is indeed a matter of pride for us, we are very proud of

him for this extraordinary feat. We wish him good luck for all future endeavors carrying forward his success story to new highs.”

Ziaur Rahaman, his father and head coach at the NMEIS Table Tennis

Academy was very happy by his son’s performance throughout the year that came with gold.

He said, after we returned from Bahrain, well wishers from the community kept pouring in and they expressed hope for more laurels to come and a star of the future.