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29 March 2024

UAE roar back to capture GCC 8-ball team gold

Mohammed Alhosani of the UAE. (SUPPLIED)

Published
By Staff

Unruffled by shocking losses in the 8-ball pool singles contests, the UAE trio of Salah Al Rimawi, Amin Fikri and Mohammad Alhosani put on a stellar performance to capture the team gold medal in the GCC Billiards Championship at the Ezone Club in Dubai on Monday.

The annihilation of the opposition was complete as the three UAE cueists remained unbeaten throughout the single league competition during which they whitewashed highly-fancied Kuwait 3-0, vanquished Bahrain 3-0, hammered Saudi Arabia 3-0 and lastly battered Qatar by the same scoreline.

The crunch battle for the UAE team was their last game of the 8-ball pool team when the trio squared off against Qatar and it did turn out to be a tough one.

Although Alhosani had beaten Mohammed Bin Ali of Qatar 7-3 with ease in his match on the first table, both Al Rimawi and Fikri went through some anxious moments.

The match-up between Al Rimawi and young Ali Alobaidli of Qatar on table two remained close throughout. Al Rimawi took the 8-ball with a brilliant plant shot to make 6-5, but Alobaidli remained unruffled and tied the score 6-6.

Al Rimawi did well to stay calm and some calculated pots helped him take the deciding rack to put the match out of the Qatar team's reach.

Fikri was also having a tough time against Bashar Hussain on table three before he took two racks in a row to record a 7-5 win and give the home team another 3-0 victory in the competition and assured that the gold medal belonged to the UAE.

Two more matches were to be played on Monday evening as the winners of silver and bronze remained undecided. The 9-ball pool singles start on Tuesday morning at the same venue.

Meanwhile, in the round robin last 16 stage of the City Engineering & Contracting LLC sponsored 41st National Day Snooker Championship, which is offering an attractive sum of Dh41,000 to the winner, UAE's top ranked player Mohamed Shehab won his first match by handing a 4-0 defeat to Saeed Al Zaabi on Sunday night.

UAE No. 2 Mohammed Al Joaker regained form as he put on a spectacular to rout Yahya Al Suwaidi of Abu Dhabi 4-0 in the same group as Shehab.

Former Pakistan international Mohammad Shafiq edged UAE national team veteran Eissa Ali Sayed 4-3 and young Abdulrahman Saif beat Ahmed Shehab 4-1.

The last 16 battles continue at the same venue till Friday night. The final will take place on December 17.