Dubai:
The UAE duo of Abdullah Al Beloushi and Salah Al Beloushi advanced to the men’s Round of 16 in the table tennis competition on the second day of the Sixth Children of Asia International Sports Games being held in Sakha.
In Friday’s action, Abdullah secured convincing 3-0 wins against opponents from South Korea, Mongolia and Bhutan and earned a qualification to the knockout stages of the competition. His teammate Salah lost his opening match, but did well to defeat a player from the host nation and occupy his place in the next round.
“My coach [Alexei Ephremov from Belarus] lays a lot of emphasis on concentration. This one aspect helped me keep my focus and win all three matches,” Abdullah said.
“During the breaks he [the coach] pointed out some minor technical errors I was making, and this too helped me,” he added.
Meanwhile, in the girls’ singles, Mariam Al Muqbali and Shahad Faisal both lost to opponents from Russia and Kazakhstan respectively.
But the UAE archery team fared well with Saqr Al Ketbi and Saud Al Beloushi returning with scores of 589 points and 536 points in the preliminary rounds of the boy’s competition. Alia Mohammad started off slowly to finally finish with a tally of 297 points.
Swimmer Yousuf Al Hosani, who is a record-holder in five disciplines at the GCC Youth level, said that the participation of UAE athletes in the Chidlren of Asia Games will add much to UAE swimmers’ experience besides acting as an important preparatory event for the inaugural GCC Youth Games to be hosted by the UAE in September and the Gulf Games in Saudi Arabia later in the year.
“Participating in more such high-level competitions can only enrich the experience of our swimmers as they will be challenged by some of the best athletes from across Asia,” Al Hosani said.
The UAE taekwondo team also landed in Yakutia on Friday to commence preparations for their events starting on July 12.
After three days of competition, the Siberian Federal District leads the table with 32 medals including 18 gold and seven silver and bronze each. Kazakhstan is in second place also with 32 medals, including nine gold, 13 silver and ten bronze, while the Republic of Sakha is in third with five gold, nine silver and 15 bronze for a total of 29 medals.
More than 3,100 athletes from 45 countries are competing in 22 sports disciplines during the 13 days of competition at this edition of the Games. The UAE has sent 82 athletes who have all graduated from the UAE School Olympic Games programme to compete in five disciplines including swimming, archery, table tennis, athletics and taekwondo.
