UAE athletes come up with a mixed bag

Guanghzhou: All four chess players from the UAE had mixed fortunes on the opening day of the rapid chess competition at the 16th Asian Games at the Guanghzhou Chess Institute here on Saturday.

Grand Master Salem Abdul Rahman Saleh was the lone winner for the UAE while his three other teammates faltered in the opening round.

However, the results turned topsy-turvey in the second round when Saleh ended the lone loser even as the other three won their first points.

Grand Master Saleh secured an easy win against Jordan's Fadi Malkawi to collect his first point, even as International Master Hassan Abdullah went down to Grand Master Sasikiran Krishnan of India.

In the women's competition, Saleh Noora Mohammad lost to Sukandar Irene Kharishma of Indonesia, while Khuloud Eisa Al Zarouni lost her match against Uzbekistan's Nafisa Muminova.

Snooker

The next best performance came from the UAE snooker team when they triumphed against Syria in their team opener, only to lose to hosts China in the last 16 stage of the competition.

Playing without any practice, the UAE did well to fight back from a frame down to beat Syria 3-1.

Syria took the lead through Omar Al Kojah with a 75-24 win against the UAE's Mohammad Shehab Al Hashemi. But the experienced Mohammad Al Joker turned things around for the UAE with a break of 50 to win the second frame against Haitham Khalil Shaikh 74-34.

Al Joker and Al Hashemi then registered a narrow 61-48 win against Al Kojah and Shaikh in the doubles for a 2-1 lead, and then Al Joker trounced Al Kojah 77-6 to ensure victory.

Shooting

The UAE's Asma Saleh Al Nuaimi was ranked 41st, followed by her teammate Shamsa Al Marzouqi in 44th place in the 10-metre women's air rifle. China took the gold and silver through Siling Yi and Liuxi Wu, while Malaysia's Nur Suryani Taibi came in third ahead of the hosts Dan Yu.

Judo

Yahya Al Hammadi went down to 2009 world champion Hwang Hee-tae of South Korea in the men's — 100kg judo competition at the Huagong Gymnasium.

Cycling

The two UAE cyclists, Mohammad Al Murwwi Yousuf Al Hammadi, participating in the individual men's individual pursuit came well short of the competition ending 21st and 25th respectively.