World Table Tennis Middle East Hub Kicks Off

Doha, - The first edition of World Table Tennis (WTT) Middle East Hub, which is organized by Qatar Table Tennis Association (QTTA) in cooperation with WTT, kicked off at the Lusail Multipurpose Hall on Sunday, with the participation of the world's leading stars. The WTT Middle East Hub, which will continue until March 13, 2021, is held in a health bubble system, where strict precautionary measures will be applied to limit the spread of the COVID-19 and ensure the safety of all participants in the event. Today's preliminary round matches of the championship were strong, where matches between men's and women's singles and mixed doubles were held during the morning and evening sessions. In the men's singles, the Qatari national team players Ahmed Khalil Al Mohannadi, Ahmed Muthanna and Mohamed Abdel Wahab fought played and difficult matches in which Canadian Jeremy Hazen defeated Ahmed Khalil Al Mohannadi 3-0, while Ahmed Muthanna lost to Chinese Taipei player Cheng Ting Liao 3-0. Belgium's florent Lambiet beat Mohamed Abdel Wahab 3-1. Algeria's Arabi Boriyah also lost to the Russian Alexander Shibayev 3-0, while Egypt's Omar Asr lost to Walter Ricardo 3-0.  Moreover, Belorussia's Pavel Platonov defeated Egypt's Mohammed Al-Bili 3-0, and Saudi Ali Al Khadrawi lost to Russia's Vladimir Sidorin 3-2.  In the women's singles, Russian Olga Vorobeva defeated Mexican Yadira Silva 3-1, and Korean Kim Haoyoung beat the Slovak Tatiana 3-1. Germany's Chantal Mantz edged past Slovakia's Ema Labosova 3-0 to meet Singapore's  Yu Mengyu in the second preliminary round tomorrow. Egypt's Hana Goda lost to Belgium's Lisa Leung 3-2. Meanwhile, Qatari and Iranian table tennis associations signed a cooperation agreement on the sidelines of the event. The agreement was signed by President of the Qatar Table Tennis Association Khalil Al Mohannadi and President of the Iranian Table Tennis Association Mehrdad Ali Qardashi. Al Mohannadi stressed that this agreement includes many points and will benefit table tennis in Qatar and Iran. For his part, the President of the Iranian federation expressed his happiness at the signing of the cooperation agreement with the Qatar Table Tennis Association, while praising the Lusail Multipurpose Hall, which is currently hosting the tournament, and its advanced sports facilities.   

HH Sheikha Moza Witnesses Conclusion of Commercial Bank CHI Al SHAQAB

Doha-(QNA)-HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), witnessed on Saturday evening the conclusion of the competitions of the 8th Commercial Bank CHI AL SHAQAB Presented by Longines, organized by Al Shaqab, a QF member, over three days. HE President of Qatar Olympic Committee Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al-Thani and a number of dignitaries of the country attended yesterday's competitions. After the end of the competitions, Her Highness crowned the winners of the Grand Prize, where German Christian Ahlmann won the first place over the horse Dominator 2000 Z after achieving a time of 36.17 seconds in the jump-off round, the Frenchman Oliver Robert came in second place, and Belgian Niels Bruynseels finished in the third place. Her Highness also honored the companies sponsoring the championship. (QNA)  

Cherif & Ahmed win Doha Beach Volleyball Cup

Doha- After placing third, fifth and 17th in their previous three starts on home sand, Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan finally finished atop a podium in the Qatari capital Friday by winning the US$5,000 Doha Beach Volleyball Cup at the Al Gharrafa Beach Complex. Seeded first in the 16-team main draw, Cherif and Ahmed posted a 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) gold medal win in 34 minutes over second-seeded Yves Haussener and Quentin Metral of Switzerland in the first FIVB World Tour meeting between the two teams. “It was good to play after one year of break,” said the 25-year old Ahmed after the match.  “Hopefully playing in this event will be an advantage for us for next month’s event.  It also helps that this is our home court where we practice every day.” Cherif added that his partner Ahmed was "very convincing tonight with his explosiveness in his attack along with his defense and consistent setting.  That makes him a great partner." With both teams winning Friday afternoon semi-final matches to advance to the first-ever Qatar versus Switzerland gold medal match on the FIVB World Tour, Cherif and Ahmed  split the $1,000 first-place prize while the Swiss shared $700 for placing second. The No. 13 team on the international ranking list, Cherif and Ahmed also secured Qatar’s second-ever FIVB on the World Tour as the pair was competing in their 29th World Tour event.  Cherif and Ahmed’s best previous finishes were thirds at events in 2018 (Doha and Vienna) and 2019 (Xiamen, China). Qatar's first gold medal win was posted on February 19, 2016 on Kish Island in Iran when Cherif and Jefferson Pereira defeated Russians Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin 2-1 (21-13, 14-21, 15-12) in the 39-minute finale. Haussener and Metral were also competing in their first World Tour gold medal match as the Swiss pair had posted two thirds in their previous nine FIVB starts together at events in Cambodia (2019) and Austria (2020). In the bronze medal match, the eighth-seeded Alexey Gusev and Pavel Shustrov rebounded from a second Doha setback to Cherif and Ahmed to post a 2-1 (19-21, 21-15, 19-17) in 48 minutes over fifth-seeded Murat Giginoglu and Volkan Gogtepe of Turkey.  The 20-year old Russians have now captured two World Tour medals in six starts together. With the Doha Beach Volleyball Cup being the first FIVB event on the 2021 schedule, the Qatari capital will also host the next World Tour event next month.  The Katara Beach Volleyball Cup is set for March 8-12 for the $300,000 men's and women's event to be played at the Katara Culture Center.

Sheikh Joaan crowns Al Sadd as champion of Qatar Cup

Doha: HE Chairman of the Qatar Olympic Committee Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al-Thani crowned Al Sadd SC as champion of the 2021 Qatar Cup, after beating its rival Al Duhail 2-0 in the final match of the competition that was held this evening, at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium. Algerian striker Baghdad Bounedjah scored for Al Sadd in the eighth and 77th minutes of the match. Al Sadd qualified for the final match after beating Al Rayyan 1-0 in the semi-final, while Al Duhail qualified after defeating Al Gharafa 2-1. This is the fourth final in all competitions, which brings together the two clubs at Abdullah bin Khalifa stadium in Al Duhail club. Al Sadd won twice in the three finals that were held on this stadium, while Al Duhail won once. Al Sadd won the cup on two occasions, in the 2017 and 2020 seasons, just as Al Duhail won the title twice in the 2015 and 2018 seasons. During the confrontation Al Sadd tried to surprise Al Duhail by building attacks from the outskirts of the stadium, using the quick moves of Hassan Al Haydos, and the decisive passes of his Spanish professional, Santi Cazorla. In the eighth minute, Al Sadd succeeded in opening the score by its Algerian striker, Baghdad Bounedjah. Al Sadd continued to impose its style and clear field control on the match in order to increase its goal-scoring result, while Al Duhail was falling back, with its reliance at times on counterattacks that did not reach the degree of great danger to Al Sadd's defenses. In the second half, Al Duhail coach Sabri Lamouchi made two changes by inserting two players in order to pump new blood into his team and adjust the result, while Al Sadd maintained the same formation that started the final match of the competition. Although Al Sadd players retreated a little and secured their defense, Al Sadd remained dangerous in counterattacks, and its danger increased by entering Rodrigo Tabata, and this tactic resulted in a second goal scored by the brilliant Algerian player Bounedjah.  

WTT Middle East Hub to begin on Sunday

Doha-The inaugural World Table Tennis (WTT) Middle East Hub will begin from Sunday with qualifying rounds to be held at the Lusail Multipurpose Hall. The Middle East Hub will feature two tiers of the new event structure, with a WTT Contender series followed by a WTT Star Contender event in consecutive weeks. After two WTT events, the Qatar Table Tennis Association (QTTA) will also host the Olympic qualifiers from March 14 to 20. The tournament will be held in a health bubble system, where strict precautionary measures will be applied to limit the spread of the Covid-19 and ensure the safety of all participants in the event. Ahead of the event, officials of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) together with WTT and QTTA held a meeting with Dr Abdul Wahab al-Musleh, Advisor Consultant to the Minister of Public Health of Qatar, to discuss on the protocols on conducting the events. During the meeting, many important issues were addressed, such as the importance of health and safety of all participants was emphasized. Since table tennis is an indoor sport, spectators will not be allowed. The local authorities are also ensuring thorough compliance to regulations and strict penalties will be put in place for anyone who breaks those regulations. Despite table tennis’ powerhouse China withdrawing from the WTT Middle East Hub because of Covid-19 concerns, the event will still see top players in action. World No. 5 Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan, Brazil’s No. 6 Hugo Calderano, Chinese Taipei’s No.7 Lin Yun-Ju are the top men’s players in the field. The women’s star cast will be led by Sun Yingsha (China, No. 2), Mima Ito (Japan, No. 3), Liu Shiwen (China, No. 7) and Cheng I-Ching (Chinese Taipei, No. 8). QTTA President Khaleel al-Mohannadi said Qatar was proud to host WTT and Olympic qualifiers. “Qatar has always shown its top class organisational capabilities to the world. And I am confident we will hold these events successfully,” said al-Mohannadi, who is also the ITTF Deputy President. “We are honoured to be hosting the first-ever WTT events in Qatar. We have made many special table tennis memories over the years and we cannot wait to kick off the WTT era on our shores,” he added. ITTF CEO Steve Dainton while praising al-Mohannadi’s role in organising the events, said: “First and foremost, we are simply excited and happy to be able to have events again. We know the events in Qatar will be a success and maximum effort will be made to ensure the full health and safety of the participants. It’s not an easy time also for the athletes as we have seen in other sports around the world in recent weeks, but getting international events back up and running is our number one priority,” Dainton said. “I want to thank the Qatar Olympic Committee and the Qatar Table Tennis Association for organising these event through meticulous planning,” he added  

Al Shahrani Wins Qatar Golf Open

Doha - Qatari Ali Al Shahrani won the 35th Qatar Open Amateur Championship, which concluded Saturday at the Doha Golf Club. A total of 108 golfers are taking part in the three-day event, with the winner earning a place at next month's Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. Saleh Ali Al Kaabi and Ruan Jordaan came in the second spot. Tom Sweigart finished in the fourth spot followed by Jaham Al Kuwari. Ali Al Shahrani expressed his happiness after winning the title of the Qatar Open Amateur Championship. He also congratulated his Qatari teammates for the good results achieved during the tournament, which witnessed strong competitions between all participants. Al Shahrani thanked the Qatar Olympic Committee and the Qatar Golf Association for their continuous support, stressing that he is looking forward to participating in the Qatar Masters in March, which witnesses the participation of the world's elite golfers.