TEQBALL – Bahrain's Rawan Abdulaziz and Fatima Albanna qualified yesterday for the girls’ doubles teqball semi-finals in the third Asian Youth Games, currently being hosted by the kingdom.
Abdulaziz and Albanna won both their matches in Group A of their competition’s preliminary round.
They first defeated Crystal Carino and Nicole Tabucol from the Philippines 2-0 (12-10, 12-10) and then overcame a tough challenge from the Indian pairing of Rakshana Mageshkumar and Maha Sankar 2-1 (12-9, 8-12, 12-10).
Their two victories earned them their place in the last four, where they are joined from their pool by Carino and Tabucol, who beat Mageshkumar and Sankar 2-1 (9-12, 12-11, 13-11) in the other clash.
Abdulaziz and Albanna will next take on the Chinese tandem of Jiayi Chen and Xinyan Jiang, who finished as runners-up in Group B after winning one of their two games.
The other semis contest is between Carino and Tabucol and the Thai duo of Phatrawan Simawong and Chiratchayaphon Kenkhunthod, who topped Group B after taking both their games.
The last four is scheduled to be played today at Exhibition World Bahrain’s (EWB) hall 10, starting from 10am.
All are welcome to attend and cheer for the athletes.
The winners of each fixture move on to the girls’ doubles gold medal match, to be held tomorrow along with the bronze medal game.
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s Hussain Isa and Ali Hasan bowed out of contention in the boys’ doubles.
They lost all five of their Group B games yesterday in their preliminary stage.
Isa and Hasan opened with a 0-2 (3-12, 6-12) loss against Nomar Andres and Fits Erece from the Philippines, and then bowed to Katanyu Potong and Katsada Mahasaksit from Thailand 0-2 (3-12, 3-12).
In their ensuing fixture, Isa and Hasan lost 0-2 (6-12, 0-12) against Akash Singha and Raib Barbhuiya from India, and then suffered a 0-2 (5-12, 4-12) defeat to Abdulfadhel Al Eleyawi and Nooruldeen Khammas from Iraq.
They completed their campaign with a 0-2 (2-12, 3-12) setback against Rothana Meun and Kheamravisoth Cheat from Cambodia.
Isa and Hasan ranked last amongst the six pairings in the boys’ doubles Group B standings, while Pool A featured five duos from Malaysia, China, Kuwait, Indonesia, and Lebanon.
Attending yesterday’s teqball matches were Bahrain Olympic Committee vice-president and Olympic Council of Asia vice-president for the third Asian Youth Games Shaikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa and General Sports Authority CEO Dr Abdulrahman Askar.
Tomorrow is the final day of the teqball events in this year’s Asian Youth Games.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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