Winning run

Abu Dhabi: Defending champions the National Drilling Company (NDC) and last year's runners-up Algerian Al Rabea won their respective matches in the 12th Open Sports Festival at the Armed Forces Officers Club on Thursday night.

While the NDC registered a 6-2 win over Orgenza Al Rabea trounced Andaleed 6-0. Apart from the two top teams, other winners on Thursday night were the UAE Ground Forces who also scored a 6-1 win over Gasco while the biggest win, a 16-0 record, was registered by the Al Nuaimi Team over Daman.

In other matches, Suqour Al Emarat had a tough time defeating Abu Dhabi University 4-2, PhoneSat beat National Transport 5-1, and Capital Police trounced Shawamekh 5-0.

Esnaad also registered a 4-0 win against Dunlop while Estishariyya also whitewashed Mustaqbal with an easy 12-0 win before the evening's scheduled came to an end with a tough duel between Al Ankabout and Hamad Construction Co, which the former won 2-0.

There will be no football matches tonight as the UAE take on North Korea in the Asian World Cup Qualifiers while action in the other disciplines continues.

First time

The Youth Under 20 Judo championship (male and female) was attended by Mohammad Bin Tha'loub Al Dar'e Chairman of the UAE Wresting and Judo Association, the Honorary Chairman of the Arab Judo Federation and a representative of the First Gulf Bank, the main sponsor of the Judo Championship, Lieutenant Colonel Salah Al Salloumi, Deputy Chairman of the Higher Organising Committee and other top officials of the organising committee.

The Judo championship, which is being held for the first time in the history of the festival, has attracted participants from the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Tunisia.

In the 81kg category (men's), the UAE's Khalifa Al Qubaisi, clinched the gold medal with Mohammad Ka'aka of Syria and Abdullah Al Shimmari, taking home the silver and bronze respectively.

The UAE's Saeed Al Shimmari also bagged the gold in the 73kg event, leaving the silver and bronze for Fahd Al Shimmari of Kuwait and Waleed Al Kandari of Yemen respectively, according to a press release.

In the women's 70kg judo event, Jeen Khalifa of Lebanon walked home with the gold medal, the UAE's promising Maryam Al Beloushi took silver, while Anha Al Jareedi of Tunisia settled for the bronze.

Safa Alhassan of Syria, clinched gold for the 70kg judo category (women's), Khawlat Al Meerawi took silver, while Karen Shammas of Lebanon settled for bronze.

The second day of the bowling event saw tough competition in the youth category. Some 34 contestants, divided into three groups, clashed in the preliminary rounds after which eight will sail through to the quarter final. Top on the table now is Yousuf Roks Al Reef with 689 points, followed by Mohammad Esmail Al Zarouni, defending champion, with 680 points, while Mohammad Saeed Obai Humur, is on 680 points.

In day three action in snooker (amateur) Ayad Al Merees qualified to the next round after edging out Saeed Al Shamsi, Ahmad Farham defeated Ebrahim Abdullah, Darwish Ghandi beat Ahmad Al Muhairy, Mohammad Aziz thrashed Salim Al Mazroue to qualify to the next round. Other qualifiers included Sadik Al Falasi who defeated Mohammad Sultan and Tariq Bashar who beat Mohammad Yousuf.