Dubai: Al Ain were crowned champions of the volleyball league on Tuesday night at the Al Nasr indoor sports hall. Shaikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum presented them with the trophy and gold medals.
Shaikh Saeed Bin Hamdan and Shaikh Maktoum Bin Hamdan also attended and presented Al Shabab and Al Ahli with special trophies and silver and bronze medals after finishing second and third respectively.
It was a fine achievement for Al Ain to clinch the league title after 11 years -the last time they won it was in 1995-1996. Al Ain also clinched all the titles in the under 19, under 17 and under 14 youth tournaments in the current season.
"We are planning for the future and not only for one season," said Ganem Al Hajiry, head of the Al Ain club indoor sports committee. "The success which we achieved came according to the excellent future planning for volleyball. We plan to prepare the team step by step to clinch the league title in 2010 according to our five-year plan, but they make it short and win the title in 2008 due to the big support volleyball is getting from the club senior officials," said Al Hajiry.
Vesko Vukovic, the Al Ain coach, who led them to win the league title, knows a lot about the UAE teams. Before joining Al Ain, he worked two years as coach for the UAE national team. That helped him very much in leading Al Ain to clinch the league title.
Significant role
The foreign players also played a significant role in that success, they have Belgian spiker Cristoph Hoho who was the best smasher in the French league before he joined Al Ain, and Serbian Marco Vogovic.
The league champions also have skilful Emirati players: Adil Atiq, Mohammad Shamal, Ahmad Juma, Mohammad Suliman, Ebrahim Al Hoassany, Jamal Hamad, Mohammad Fairuz, Ahmad Mihayer, Khamis Abdullah, Ahmad Al Zeeb and Abdul Aziz Suliman.
