Guangzhou : The UAE duo of Rashid Abdul Hamid and Rashid Mohammad bowed out of the table tennis competition at the 16th Asian Games but with their heads held high and a future to look up to.
Abdul Hamid went down 2-4 [6-11, 11-9, 5-11, 9-11, 11-8, 12-14] to Gao Ning of Singapore while Mohammad was beaten 4-0 [2-11, 5-11, 3-11, 6-11] by another Singaporean Yang Zi in an earlier round-of-16 match of the men's singles.
"There is no shame in losing to such strong opponents. It is like playing against Federer and Nadal in tennis. It is an experience in itself. We know we came here and gave it our best against much superior players. For us this was an opportunity to learn and grow in our sport," Abdul Hamid told Gulf News.
"To take two sets off a player like Gao Ning is a great thing for me as a player. It was fun playing him and there is so much that I learnt in this one match," he added.
In the doubles too the UAE duo took on the top Chinese pair of Wang Ho and Zhang Jike and competed strongly despite losing 7-11, 6-11, 4-11.
