Dubai: Skydive Dubai and the Abu Dhabi Police topped the women’s and men’s teams’ competitions at the Nad Al Sheba (NAS) Night Challenge held in the desert outside the Nas Sports Complex late on Thursday.
The Skydive Dubai team clocked a time of 58.46 minutes to end at the top of the standings in the women’s section, leaving Cool Runnings in second with a time of 1:08.49, while the b2bfitness_3 team occupied third position with a time of 1:32.52. The Vikings and Power Rangers took the next two places with times of 1:41.53 and 2:01.40 respectively.
The Night Challenge was for teams of five participants or more, all of whom had to go through a set of 13 obstacles placed over a 5km distance. And failure to go past an obstacle meant a time penalty of 30 minutes. More than 650 athletes representing 140 teams from across the UAE participated in the Night Challenge with Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Sports Council presiding at the race.
Meanwhile, Al Jawareh and Quattro Sports Centre became the first two teams booking their places in the quarter-finals of the futsal competition. Al Jawareh were held to a 3-3 draw by Al Bahri 2 to end with four points along with Quattro.
And Al Wasl squandered a three-goal lead and yet went to the top of the group with a 3-3 result against Sport For All in Group D. Leading comfortably 3-0 with five minutes to go, Al Wasl allowed their opponents to come right back and equalise within the next two minutes and drop vital points.
Al Wasl, who have four points and a goal difference of plus four, will now have to await the result of the last group match between Sport For All and Healthy Sports. “Two minutes made all the difference tonight,” Al Wasl’s UAE star Badr Ebrahim Mubarak told Gulf News.
“We lost our concentration for a brief moment. This should never be the case in any sport. Fortunately, we are at the top of the group with a good goal difference, so that should come in handy in the end,” he added.
Sport For All’s Khalid Saeed Al Seqetri looked confidently towards their second match against Healthy Sports. “We lost two vital players to red cards today. One was our main goalkeeper [Ebrahim Kamal] and the second was our foreign player [Mehran Mohammad Ali Ghadar]. If we had both of them on the pitch we could have even won perhaps,” Al Seqetri said.
Meanwhile, Sandy Farquharson and Javier Lopez lined up for a record third title in the men’s open padel competition. Farquharson and Lopez easily got past Javier Molina and Emilio Misas 6-0, 6-4 to set up a final encounter against the Argentinian pairing of Fermin Ferreyra and Guillermo Villafane, who defeated the French duo of Benjamin Cassaigne and Xavier Masson 6-2, 7-5 in the second semi-final later on Thursday. The final will be played at the Nas Sports Complex on Monday.
“It’s good to be in another final here. I am sure it will be a good close match as this competition has grown and got stronger over the years,” Farquharson told Gulf News.
“We’ve not exactly had too many tournaments leading up to this competition, so each match has been a building-up process for us as a pair. Hopefully, we will have enough to win a third title in the open category,” he added.
Results:
Padel Open semi-finals: Sandy Farquharson/Javier Lopez bt Javier Molina/Emilio Misas 6-0, 6-4; Fermin Ferreyra/Guillermo Villafane x Benjamin Cassaigne/Xavier Masson 6-2, 7-5.
Futsal: The Emperor v MKS 4-1; Al Wasl x Sports For All 3-3; Al Bahri Sport 2 x Al Jawareh 3-3.
Nas Night Challenge: (Women) 1. Skydive Dubai (58 mins, 46 secs); 2. Cool Runnings (1:08.49); 3. B2bfitness_3 (1:32.52); 4. The Vikings (1:41.53); 5. Power Rangers (2:01.40). (Men) 1. Abu Dhabi Police Team (37.25 mins); 2. Bespoke Ride (38.00); 3. Hunters (39.04); 4. Dubai Municipality (39.48); 5. Atlantis Titans (40.32).
