Dubai: The UAE bowling team has promised to continue with its rich legacy when it travels to Incheon for the 17th Asian Games later this week.

The UAE squad consists of six bowlers including three former Asian Games medallists — Mahmoud Al Attar, Naif Oqab and Shaker Ali Hassan. The other three bowlers on the team are the experienced Mohammad Al Marzouki, Hussain Al Suwaidi and Hareb Al Mansouri.

The bowling team has been a regular at winning medals at Asian Games. The country has a total of 23 Asian Games medals since they first participated at the 1990 Beijing Asiad. Of these, ten medals have come from the bowling squads.

The UAE won a silver and two bronze medals in bowling in Beijing followed by a lone bronze in the trios competition four years later in Hiroshima. In Busan 2002, the UAE’s Shaker Ali Hassan took a silver in the singles and then teamed up with Mohammd Al Qubaisi and Hulaiman Al Hameli for his second silver in the trios. The UAE’s squad also took bronze in the fives competition.

Though the squad returned empty-handed from the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, the UAE did well with three medals — two silvers and a bronze at the 2006 Doha Asiad, with Oqab ending second best overall and in the doubles and Al Attar taking bronze in singles.

“Our track record is an indication of what our bowlers are capable of at the Asian Games. We compete vigorously for the top spot, and perhaps, it is not always that we are successful. But we are there as serious medal contenders,” Jamal Al Banna, Vice President, Emirates Bowling Federation (EBF) told Gulf News.

The UAE squad could have been stronger, but the experienced Sayed Ebrahim Al Hashemi pulled out of the team so that he could attend to his ailing father. Al Marzouki will now take his place in the side.

The UAE bowlers have proved their strength at the Gulf and Arab levels as well while being champions on five occasions out of eleven at the GCC level and dominating four out of the six times the Arab Bowling Championship has been held so far.

Their build-up for the 2014 Asiad has been ideal under new Canadian coach William Rowe with Shaker Ali Hassan winning an IBF World Tour tournament in Bahrain last month and Naif Oqab being placed third at a similar tournament in Thailand.

“Now it is time for our players to get a feeling of being together as a team. The physical and sports preparations are done, and when we land in Korea it will be time for them to get mentally ready for such an important competition,” Al Banna said.

“The beauty of bowling is that there are no weak teams at the Asian Games. Everyone is capable of winning medals and the UAE squad will also be among the medal hopefuls. I am confident of landing more than one medal through bowling. We have delivered on our promises in the past and this time too we will be in the thick of the action,” he added.