Qatari paraglider Ali Al Yafei competes in the men’s individual accuracy event in Gunung Mas Puncak, West Java, Indonesia yesterday.
DOHA: Qatari volleyball team kick-started their quest for an Asian Games gold medal with a resounding 3-0 win against Maldives at the Gelora Bung Karno Sport Complex yesterday.
In their opening match in Jakarta, the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Cup champions made the win look so easy as they left no room for the Maldivians to pick up the pace and secured the three setter at 25-11, 25-8 and 25-13.
Qatari player Sulaiman Saad said that their aim is to make it to the final round of the Asiad.
“It’s a great feeling knowing that Qatar is the first Arab country to win the AVC Cup. We are hoping to adapt to the weather and atmosphere here in Indonesia and we are aiming to compete in the final rounds,” Saad said after yesterday’s win against the South Asian counterparts.
Belal Abunabot (26), Hammad Mubarak (23) and Renan Ribeiro (21) penetrated the Maldivian defence with their blazing attacks, being the biggest contributors to keep the score ticking for Qatar. Osman Wagihalla (17), Milos Stevanovic (19) and Ahmed Noaman (19) also made valuable contributions during yesterday’s Pool F encounter.
The win sent Qatar to the top of the group which also includes India and Hong Kong.
Today, Al Annabi will take on India in their second match of the preliminary round.
Meanwhile, Qatar handball team also got off to a perfect start in the main round by overcoming Iraq 26-20 at the Pooki Sports Hall in Jakarta.
Anis Zouaoui and Moustafa Heiba scored five goals each as a collective effort put Qatar ahead by a 15-9 margin in the first half. Iraqi team tried to fight back in the second half by adding 11 goals, but team Qatar proved to be to strong for them at the end.
Qatar, who topped in qualifying group, now are ahead of Japan and Saudi Arabia and Iraq in group 1.
Elsewhere, at the JSC Beach Volley Arena in Palembang, Qatari players had a successful day with Ahmed Janko and Cherif Samba defeating Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Yakolev and Sergey Bogatu 21-9, 21-17 in their first match of the preliminary round. The duo will take on South Korea’s Kim Junyoung and Kim Hongchan in their second Pool B match today.
In Pool F, the second Qatari pair, Tamer Abdelrasoul and Mehdi Sammoud defeated their Maldivian counterparts 2-1 (21-18, 15-21, 15-8) yesterday.
At the Gelora Bung Karno Sport Complex Aquatic Centre, Abdulaziz Al Obaidly managed to win his men’s 50m backstroke heat with a time of 28.78 seconds but the performance was not good enough for a place in the final.
His compatriot, Noah Al Khulaifi was slightly faster than him in the previous heat, but he was placed third with a time of 28.75 seconds.
In the men’s 200m individual medley, Mohamed Abdelrahman was placed sixth in the second heat, clocking a time of 2:16.84.
Later, Al Obaidly, Youssed Mohamed, Yacob Alhulaifi and Firas Saidi teamed up in the 4x200m freestyle relay and were placed fifth in the second heat. Competing in lane five, the Qatari swimmers clocked a time of 8:22.53 as South Koreans won the heat with a time of 7:24.32.
The luck was not with Qatari fencer Ahmed Salmanpoor yesterday as he lost all five of his Pool C preliminaries of men’s individual sabre event at the Jakarta Convention Centre.
His compatriot, Nasr Al Saadi managed to beat Malaysia’s Syed Adam Emir Putra in Pool D, but lost rest of his individual sabre preliminaries.
Shooters Amna Mesaad Al Abdulla and Kholoud Hassan Al Khalaf did not make it to the final round of the women’s Trap event after finishing 11th and 22nd respectively in the qualifying round.
Gymnasts, Ahmed Al Dayani and Ahmed Mosa competed in the qualifying rounds of artistic gymnastics but failed to make it to the next round.
At the JSC Shooting Range, it was a similar story in the men’s trap as Ahmed Mohammed Al Rumaihi and Ali Khejaim bowed out after finishing on 14th and 20th positions respectively.
In the men’s 10m air rifle qualifying event, Ahmed Mohsen Al Ali and Ali Al Muhannadi were placed 35th and 40th respectively in the overall standings.
Female shooter Matara Al Aseiri finished 41st in the Air rifle 10m qualifiers.
Meanwhile, in paragliding, Ali Al Yafei was ranked seventh in the first round of men’s Individual accuracy discipline. In his next round, the Qatari paraglider finished ninth overall. His compatriot, Abdellatif Al Qahtani was ranked 27th and 29th respectively after his two jumps.
