Al Qarqawi dedicates the Gulf gold to the UAE leadership
The federation president dedicated the national team's Gulf Games gold medal to His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Major General Ismail Al Qarqawi, president of the UAE and Arab basketball federations, dedicated the national team's gold medal at the Gulf Games to His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and the greatest supporter of Emirati sport, to the wise leadership and to the people of the Emirates.
“What our young team achieved in Kuwait exceeded every expectation,” he said. “The most we had hoped for was to finish in the top three and come back with a medal, but our players' will and their determination to represent their country creditably doubled our responsibility and increased our resolve to take the title once we reached the final — despite all the difficult circumstances we faced before travelling, whether the absence of several key players through injury or national service, or the lack of the funds that would have allowed an overseas training camp of the kind every other competing Gulf team had.”
He added: “Beating our Kuwaiti brothers, the hosts and with the crowd behind them, was not easy, particularly as they field a well-drilled group, eight of them from Kuwait Club, who took Arab silver at the last Arab Clubs Championship in Alexandria over the summer. Credit is due to our team for learning from the earlier meeting between the two sides in the preliminary round, which Kuwait won, and for playing with courage and quality from first to last.”
“It was only right that they took gold and returned Emirati basketball to winning ways after some years out of the spotlight, following the considerable change in the make-up of the squad,” Al Qarqawi continued, praising the work of the technical staff under Dr Mounir Ben Habib in assembling a successful blend of experience and the young faces who form the majority of the current team. He also praised the administrative staff for their support of a young squad on which the federation places high hopes for what is to come, beginning with the Asian qualifiers in Doha early next month in a group containing Qatar, Oman and Sri Lanka.
