UAE win their first medal

Abu Dhabi: Hosts UAE won the sliver medal in the ladies badminton competition of the ongoing 6th MENA Special Games on Tuesday.

Kholood Zayed Al Shehhi won silver in badminton to give her country its first medal on the first day of the competition following two days of classification matches.

In handball, the UAE were classified with Iran and Tunisia as the top teams and they will open their campaign today against top seeded Iran who were surprisingly forced to settle for a 7-7 tie by second ranked Tunisia yesterday in their match at the Al Jazira indoor stadium. In group B of the second classification Algeria beat Yemen 10-9. It was a surprising result as Yemen were the handball champions of the 5th Special Games in 2005 in Dubai. Egypt is the other team in the group.

Competition

In ladies basketball competitions, the teams were divided into two groups with the first group featuring Lebanon, Algeria and Syria while the second group consists of the UAE and Egypt.

The men's basketball teams were divided into two groups. Group A includes the UAE A team, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait while Group B features UAE B team, Egypt, Syria and Algeria. In today's matches, the UAE B will face Algeria and Egypt against Syria. Lebanon secured the gold medal after beating Algeria 20-8 and Syria 19-2. Algeria face Syria today to decide the winners of the silver medals while the UAE will face Egypt for the gold of group B.

The UAE will meet Egypt today in the football seven-a-side competition. The hosts have two teams, A and B. The A team plays in the same group that features Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia, the holders of the World Cup for the mentally retarded.

The UAE A team will face Saudi Arabia tomorrow. In football group B there are UAE B, Iraq, Libya and Palestine. The hosts will face libya today followed by the match of Iraq vs Palestine.

Ahmad lauds organisers

Ahmad Shabeeb Al Dhaheri, the Vice Chairman of the UAE Federal National Council, expressed his admiration for the organisation of the 6th MENA Special Games and lauded the organisers for the success they achieved in hosting 1,500 athletes from 23 countries from the Middle East and North Africa.

"I am pleased with what I saw from the organisers and volunteers. They are doing an excellent job," Al Dhaheri told reporters. "The local organisers have given a good impression of their country and its organisational capabilities and I am sure that they deserve a lot of praise for achieving success to this noble games."

Abdul Mohsin Al Dossari, the Assistant Undersecretary of the General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare, told Gulf News, "I am happy to see delegations from brotherly and friendly nations being guests of our country and participate in such a tournament for our brothers the mentally retarded. All the members of the society are asked to help in achieving success to this noble cause and to achieve its goals of helping the disabled to integrate into society and do an active role to improve their countries."