AMMAN August 26. 2024 (Saba) - The junior national table tennis team began its participation in the West Asian Championship, which opened on Monday in the Jordanian capital (Oman) by competing in the team category.
The national team played the U-15 team category with players Abdul Rahman Shabelle and Rayan Al-Yafai, under the supervision of national coach Hani Al-Hammadi, where it was drawn in Group A along with the teams of "Qatar, Kuwait, and Lebanon".
The team, whose players participated abroad for the first time, opened its campaign by meeting the Qatari team, and the confrontation ended with a 3/0 victory, and in the second meeting it faced its Kuwaiti counterpart and the latter came out a winner 3/1, while the third meeting brought together the national team with its Lebanese counterpart and ended with a Lebanon 3/0 victory.
It is noteworthy that the team is participating in the tournament with the support of the Yemeni Omani Telecommunications Company (YOU) and Yemen Airways, and is represented by players Shabelle and Rayan player Wissam Al-Din Bakha, who will compete in the individual category under 13 years.
According to the tournament schedule, tomorrow, Tuesday, the team category competitions will continue, while the doubles category competitions will be held on Wednesday, as well as the final of the team category, and the preliminary round competitions for the singles category will be held next Thursday and will be completed next Friday and Saturday.
In this context, the coach of the national team, Hani Al-Hammadi, confirmed that the players Shabelle and Al-Yafei performed well on the opening day of the competitions, even though it was their first foreign participation. He pointed out that the tournament is witnessing strong competition, and that the players of the other participating teams outperformed Yemen by the difference of presence in previous tournaments, and gained confidence in such participation, which is what the national team players lack.
He explained that this tournament broke the barrier of fear of playing in an international tournament for players, and they will be the nucleus of a strong team in the future.
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