KHALEEJ TIMES:

KHALEEJ TIMES:
UAE Team Take Top Honours James Jose

13 September 2009 ABU DHABI — UAE came up with a splendid show to emerge champions in the Jiu-Jitsu championship of the 13th Armed Forces Officers Club Open Sports Festival at the Armed Forces Club premises on Friday night.

UAE lapped up 14 medals out of the 24 at stake to stamp their class in the event.

UAE won four gold medals in different classes. Mohammed Al Qubaisi won the gold in the 65kg weight class, while Khalifa Al Qubaisi took the gold in the 74kg segment.

Faisal Al Kutbi won two gold medals—in the 92kg category and the Open weight class.

Mahdi Al Qubaisi won the silver in the 83kg category, losing out on the gold to Dmitry Testos of Greece.

Yahya Mansour won the bronze in the above 92kg category. Mohammed Al Minhali shared the bronze after placing fourth. The gold medal went to Egypt’s Tariq Matar, who defeated Amin Tawati of Sweden in the final.

The Sports Festival is being held under the patronage of Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.

The event was contested by 160 fighters from 28 countries of the world, including 95 contestants from the UAE, who took part in the event.

The other contestants were from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Palestine, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Iran, Cyprus, the USA, Britain, Brazil, the Philippines, France, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Bosnia Herzegovina, Romania, Slovenia, Hungary and Portugal.

Mohammed bin Thaloub, Chairman of UAE Wresting, Judo and Jiu-Jitsu Association, praised the AFOC for its continuous success in the organising of the AFOC Games and other sports activities in the country. He reiterated his outfit’s unconditional cooperation with the AFOC to enable both achieve more successes for the country.

Dh 400,000 at stake
Al Sayyaad lock horns with favourites National Archives Centre, while Ground Forces take on Al Rabea of Algeria in the semifinals of the men’s five-a-side indoor football championship. The play-off for the third and fourth places and the final will be held on Sunday.

The period of a match in the final will be 30 minutes – 15 minutes per half – with a break of five minutes.

A total cash prize of Dh 400,000 is at stake with the winners taking home a trophy, gold medals and a cash prize of Dh 150,000.

The first runners-up will also take home a trophy, silver medals and a cash prize of Dh 120,000, while the second runners-up will take home a trophy, bronze medals and a cash prize of Dh 75,000. The fourth-placed team will pocket Dh 50,000 and the Goal King of the championship will take home a cash prize of Dh 5,000.

Two-thousand-and-eight-hundred contestants from 66 countries of the world participated in the AFOC Games which featured 13 various events including football, volleyball, bowling, judo, karate, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, playstation, shooting, fencing, chess and Boxing.