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Had there been a gold medal for frankness, Mohamed Shalaby would have won it hands down. The Qatar taekwondo coach yesterday admitted his team were in Incheon only for the experience. |
“With many of the world champions in taekwondo coming from Asian nations like China, South Korea and Japan, we don’t stand a chance to win a medal,” the Egyptian told journalists from Qatar yesterday.
“We are only here to gain from the experience so that we can use it to win medals at GCC and Arab level events,” Shalaby added.
Qatar are fielding four men and two women in taekwondo and for all of them the Asian Games would be the biggest stage of their sporting careers so far.
“Taekwondo is a tough sport and the team members are very young. It would be a great experience for them to compete on this stage,” added Shalaby.
Meanwhile, the basketball team had another practice session yesterday under coach Vasilis Fragkias.
They looked sharp in their passing and shooting and were itching to see proper action after playing a string of practice matches against Korean first division teams.
“We are confident going ahead and can’t wait for the tournament to start,” said Fragkias.
Qatar will take on a team coming through the qualifiers on September 23.
Qatar are fancying an outside chance of winning a basketball medal after they fell just short of the target at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou where they finished fifth.
