Dubai Ramadan volleyball tournament sees MRMR-2 fight back to win title

The team's Bahraini star Nasser Saleh Anan credited his side's 'focus and hunger' for recovering from an opening loss in the tournament to top Fohood Zabeel for the title.

DUBAI // Nasser Saleh Anan, MRMR-2’s Bahraini star, believes his team’s hunger was the key as they bounced back after losing their opening match of the Nad Al Sheba Ramadan Sports Tournament to win the volleyball title.

MRMR-2 had started their campaign with 2-3 loss to Quattro Centre in their opening match, but fought back to qualify for the semis, where they defeated Zabeel 3-1 (22-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-19). Late on Wednesday night, they edged Fohood Zabeel 3-1 (25-17, 16-25, 25-22, 25-23) in the final.

“The key to winning tonight was focus and hunger for this title,” said Anan, one of the chief architects of the triumph alongside Elvis Contreras of the Dominican Republic.

“We needed to prove to ourselves that we are capable of bouncing back from that defeat on the first night. Our team meetings after every practice session always centred around how badly we wanted to win the title this time.

“We needed to be disciplined going into the final, especially because we were tired after last night’s semi-finals. But we also knew we had to maintain our focus and things would work in our favour. We are all so very happy at winning it this time.”

In the play-off for third place, Zabeel blanked the Khamis Esmail-led Surprise 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 26-24). Surprise, playing for the third night on the trot, looked far from their best, and Zabeel’s Cameroon professional, Nathan Baian Wounem, only made their task tougher, scoring 18 points.

In the wheelchair basketball competition that is being held at the Dubai Club for Special Sports in Al Ghusais, Al Fursan shot down Dubai Ambulance 101-24, while hosts Dubai Club for Special Sports ‘B’ got the better of Union Co-Operative 59-43 in the two matches played late on Wednesday.

RESULTS

Volleyball:

Final: MRMR-2 beat Fohood Zabeel 3-1 (25-17, 16-25, 25-22, 25-23)

Third place: Zabeel beat Surprise 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 26-24)

Individual Awards:

Oldest Player of the tournament: Khalid Mahmoud Al Hossaini

Best server: Rashid Ayoub (MRMR-2)

Best libero: Ahmed Abdullah (MRMR-2)

Best setter: Majid Al Thani (MRMR-2)

Best spiker: Mohammed Khamis (MRMR-2)

Best player of the tournament: Khalid Hamza (Fohood Zabeel)

Best foreign player: Mohammed Chikhi Rhaybah (Algeria)

Archery (all finals)

Recurve Cadets Boys’ U-17: 1 Mohammed Ateeq; 2 Ahmed Hamad; 3 Saud Rashid.

Recurve Cadets Girls’ U-17: 1 Noora Haroon; 2 Maitha Abdullah; 3 Ghalia Bader.

Recurve Disabled Open Category: 1 Shabbir Ahmed; 2 Saeed Al Muhairi; 3 Reza Jalal Bahri.

Compound Open Category: 1 Abdul Aziz Al Rodhan; 2 Wissam Torbay; 3 Maral Chreiki.

Recurve Open Category: 1 Solomon Thomas (India); 2 Nada Mamdouh (Egypt); 3 Pedro Santos (Portugal).

Padel

Men’s Open: Hassan Sharif Al Marzouqi/Saeed Al Marri beat Mohammed Ahli/Abdullah Ahli 6-4, 6-3; German Zunica/Javier Molina beat Ramon Perez Goicoechea/Patrick Chucri 6-0, 6-0.

UAE Nationals: Majid Bushagar/Mohammed Al Janahi beat Khalid Al Mutaiwe’i/Khalid Sultan Al Falahi 6-0, 6-0; Ali Al Qaiwani/Zayed Abbas beat Rashid Suwaidan Al Ketbi/Khalid Al Ateyat 6-1, 6-2.

Wheelchair Basketball:

Al Fursan beat Dubai Ambulance 101-24

Dubai Club for Special Sports ‘B’ beat Union Co-Operative 59-43

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