Dubai Police rule roost in snowboarding at Ramadan tournament

Dubai: Hassan Al Fardan led the Dubai Police team’s dominance at the Nad Al Sheba Ramadan Sports Tournament’s Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding Championship held at Ski Dubai late on Friday.

Al Fardan won the Giant Slalom Men’s title with a time of 33.54 seconds, finishing ahead of Sean Gaugain (35.97) and Sam Sharbine (37.94), while Hassan Al Taher took the top honours in the Ski Slopestyle Men’s Open with 126 points leaving Sultan Eisa Bin Ali in second with 125 points and Abdullah Omar Al Muhairi in third with 99 points.

A part of the NAS Sports Tournament for the first time along with cricket, the Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding Championship attracted participants of various nationalities, as well as a team representing Dubai Police — whose talent was never in doubt.

Meanwhile, Surprise booked their place in the volleyball semi-final after an engrossing 3-1 win over defending champions Dubai 2020. The 2017 champions will now meet Bin Thani in the first of the two semi-finals on Sunday night, while Dubai 2021, the toppers in Group B, will take on Fohood Zabeel in the second semi-final.

With Fohood Zabeel having already clinched one of the two qualifying spots from Group A, Surprise and Dubai 2020 were left to fight for the second spot, with Surprise, who had defeated Fohood Zabeel 3-2 in their opening game, having the easier of the tasks — they just needed to make sure they win at least two sets on Friday night and then even a win would not have been enough for Dubai 2020.

Knowing the equation, Dubai 2020, who won the title as F3 last season, fought hard. Losing a tight first set, they clinched the second and were in the contest until 13-13 in the third, but Surprise then shifted gears to zoom ahead, winning the set to confirm their semi-final spot before clinching the match 25-23, 23-25, 25-18, 25-17 to finish at the top of Group A.