Ali enters quarters

28
BAHRAIN SPORT
Gulf Daily News Wednesday, 28th January 2015
Email: [email protected]
Ali enters quarters
BAHRAIN’S Ali Nabeel Dewani excelled on the opening
day of the GCC Tennis Youth
and Juniors Championships
(U-18, U-14) being held in Kuwait.
Ali defeated Kuwait’s Ali Al Gallaf (6-0, 6-3) in the first round and later went on to flatten Qatar’s Abdulla
Shenan 6-1, 6-0. Dewani will take on
Saudi Arabia’s Faisal Al Reedi in the
quarter-finals.
Ali along with teammate Hamad Essam Abdula’al won the first set of their
doubles game against Kuwait’s Talal Kamal and Rasheed Bader 6-3 before the
Kuwaiti team withdrawn from the match.
Bahrain set
for Al Ain
challenge
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s Elyas Abdulredha was knocked out of the championship. Elyas, who had won his first match
against Kuwait’s Rasheed Al Bader
7-6, 3-6, 7-5 in a thriller, lost his second match against Saudi Arabia’s Omar
Ahmed Fahmi 0-6, 1-6.
Another Bahraini, Hamad Essam Abdula’al, was not lucky in the singles competition, losing his first clash against Saudi’s Musaed Al Azzam 2-6 and 3-6. His
teammate Yousif Ashraf lost to Kuwait’s
Talal Kamal 0-6, 2-6. In the doubles, both
Yousif Ashraf and Elyas Abdulredha lost
to Kuwait’s Faisal Bu Grais and Ali Gallaf 0-6, 1-6.
BIC offers F1 GP
ticket discount
MOTORSPORT fans have
just over two weeks remaining to take
advantage of Bahrain International
Circuit (BIC)’s Early Bird Discount
and get reduced prices on tickets to the
2015 Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain
Grand Prix.
The Early Bird Discount offers up to
15 per cent off on tickets to the highly anticipated night race, happening over the
weekend of April 17 to 19 at BIC, “The
Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”,
in Sakhir.
The offer is now running in its second
month following the huge demand for an
extension from its original discount period. The price reduction is now available
until February 15, 2015.
The 15 per cent discount covers tickets to both the Main Grandstand and the
Turn One Grandstand – two of the most
exciting places around the world-class
desert circuit to watch the floodlit Bahrain
Grand Prix. A three-day ticket to the Main
Grandstand now costs BD128, down from
its original price of BD150; while a Turn
One Grandstand ticket costs BD85 from
BD100.
Aside from the 15 per cent reduction,
n Ali, right, with other Bahrain team members
also on offer is a 10 per cent discount on
tickets to the Batelco Grandstand, University Grandstands and Victory Grandstands.
Batelco Grandstand tickets now cost
BD108 after being reduced from the
original price of BD120; while tickets to
the University Grandstands and Victory Grandstands are just BD54 each from
BD60 after discounts.
Outlet
Tickets can be purchased at the BIC
sales outlet located on the ground floor of
Bahrain City Centre. Alternatively, they
can be purchased online at bahraingp.com
or by calling BIC Hotline 17-450000.
The 2015 Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix will be the fourth round
of this year’s FIA Formula One World
Championship. The big night race will be
complemented by other top international
racing series taking place during the weekend, along with plenty of fun family entertainment off the track.
For further information on the Early
Bird Discount or to make a booking for
tickets to the Bahrain Grand Prix, visit
bahraingp.com or call the BIC Hotline on
+973-17-450000.
n There will be plenty of fun family entertainment off the track
Khalifa wins Captain’s Prize Al Khayyat and Isa
reach second round
n Winners of Captain’s Prize at Awali Golf Club
MOHAMMED Khalifa won the overall
winner’s prize with 44 points in the Captain’s
Prize competition held at Awali Golf Club.
Khalifa was three points clear of runner-up
Abdulrahman Amin.
Abdul Elah Fakhroo, the club’s first Bahraini
captain, sponsored the event with an impressive
array of prizes for the worthy. Nearly one hundred players took advantage of Abdul Elah’s generosity, one or two of whom demonstrated some
fine golf as shown by their stableford scores,
assisted perhaps by glorious golfing conditions.
Prizes were presented on behalf of the captain
by Mel Fakhroo.
RESULTS: 1st Mohammed Khalifa (44), 2nd Abdulrahman Amin (41), 3rd Jo Pawson (40), 4th Adnan Al
Sowaidi (40), 5th Vidhu Mittal (40), 6th Essa Al Qutami
(40), 7th Mohammed Khalifa Al Fudhala (40), 8th Rashid
Al Qutami (40), 9th Ariette Paul (40), 10th Jeff Paa, Yong
Back Kim and Ahmed Al Noaimi losing on countback.
ABDULLA Isa and Hussain
Al Khayyat qualified for the
second round of the billiards
competition in the Bahrain Billiards and Snooker
League.
Both Abdulla and Hussain
made it to the second round
after qualifying from Group
A.
Other players who made
it to the second round from
various groups are Hassan Sabah, Ahmed Khelaif,
Mohammed Sanad, Fares
Abdulkarim, Raed Ahmed,
Hussain Al Sisi, Ali Hassan,
Sayed Ali, Ali Abdulkarim,
Mohammed Khalil, Ahmed
Yousif, Omar Al Haram, Fahad Khalaf and Sayed Ahmed
Al Alawi.
In the snooker competition, Talal Jassim and Sadiq
Abdulghani made it to the
second round by qualifying
from Group B while Yahya
Hassan and Abdulla Mjerain
qualified from Group G.
The event, organised by
Bahrain Billiard and Snooker Federation and sponsored
by Bapco, is being held at the
federation’s premises in Al
Najma Club.
Over 60 players are competing in the event which
will conclude on February
10. Of these, 38 players are
competing in the snooker
competition, while 30 are
taking part in the billiards
competition.
Bapco, the sponsor of this
season’s league, has set a total prize of $8,000 for the top
winners in both billiards and
snooker competitions.
BAHRAIN’s Arabian Celts
Gaelic football teams are off to
Al Ain this weekend for their
first competitive outing of 2015
in the resuming Sperrin Middle
East League.
Despite a two-month gap
since the last tournament, the
Bahrain teams remain in high
spirits after the Arabian Celts
men captured the club’s first
ever senior cup title in Abu
Dhabi at the end of November.
That victory has moved the
Celts to second place in the
league standings behind heavy
favourities Abu Dhabi A but
with that success they have also
lost much of their underdog
status and so Friday’s group rivals Dubai A, Abu Dhabi B and
Qatar B will be out to take them
down a peg or two.
Thankfully, most of the squad
from that famous day remains
intact as Jason McNamara, Terry
Kehoe, James McGrath, Seamus
Corry, Joe Melia, Liam Trigg,
Alan Burke and Frank McCarthy
are all named to travel.
Joe McCullough has recovered
sufficiently from illness while
captain Martin Scannell is also included after a recent knee injury.
The only changes to the panel see new signing James Finn
taking over from the departed
Shane O’Brien and Brian Cafferty, who was originally selected but forced to pull out of the
squad in Abu Dhabi, replace the
unfortunate Paddy McCloskey.
Familiarity is something of
an unusual luxury afforded to
the Arabian Legends (men’s
second team) squad on this occasion as McCloskey’s inclusion, which offsets the substantial loss of injured playmaker
Tom Hanratty, is one of only
two changes from the previous
round.
James Egan, Kieran Gallagher, Dave McClelland, Rich
Ryan, Brian Kelleher, Conor
Wallace, John Doherty, Joe Dalton, Brian Kelleher and Andrei
Bazgan are all back in harness,
while former captain and club
legend Brendan Stafford makes
a welcome return to the fray as
they take on Clann na hOman,
Oman GAA and Sharjah.
In the ladies draw, the Celts
have what could be regarded as
the toughest possible group but
thankfully, they can call on the
services of Orla Reilly, Randi
Wilkinson and Shelly Mohi,
who all missed out on the Abu
Dhabi tournament.
Niamh Creighton and Deena
Rahman are unavailable this
time round but Hannah Ryan
and Joy Napier are included
for their first senior appearance
of the season, while Christina
Rowan will make her club debut after impressing at training
since the new year.
Naseeb returns
INTERNATIONAL Referees
Committee member and Arab
Referees Committee Chairman
Jaffar Naseeb has returned after
taking part in the referees and
international rules committee meeting held in Lausanne,
Switzerland last week.
The meeting confirmed the
International referees’ nominated list which comprises 84
referees, including three from
Bahrain – Sayed Jaffar, Sayed
Hussain and Mohammed Abas
Yousif.