The Qatar Maroon team had an easy passage into the quarterfinals yesterday.
By Sports Reporter/Doha
Qatar Maroon and Qatar Grey have set up a men’s quarter-final battle in the inaugural Asian 3x3 Championships after a hectic first day which saw about 40 matches being played at the Villaggio Mall yesterday.
Qatar Maroon won all their matches in Group A but as luck would have it only one team from the country would advance to the semi-finals after Qatar Grey finished second in Group D to set up a clash with their compatriots.
Qatar Grey fell 11-7 to Jordan in their opening match, but showed tremendous spirit to beat Japan 22-18 and Hong Kong 20-11 later to make the knockouts.
Mansoor El Hadary, Sadd Abdulrahman, Mohamed Salim Abdulla and Bakir Mohamed excelled for Qatar Grey, displaying tremendous co-ordination to outwit their rivals.
“It’s a very exciting format. It took us a little bit of time to get used to it, but we are in the quarter-finals and that is important, although we will be clashing with our team-mates from the Qatar national team, “ said El Hadary.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t top the group because of the Jordan reverse. Otherwise we would have avoided Qatar Maroon in the last 8,” he added.
Qatar Maroon, led by veteran national team player Yaseen Moosa and ably supported by Boney Watson, Khalid Suleiman and Malek Salim Abdulla were in a class all their own as they easily overcame all opposition in the preliminaries.
Using their superior height and reach, they dispatched the Philippines 21-11 in their opening game before beating Mongolia 21-16 and Sri Lanka 18-11 in the last match to assert their credentials.
“It was a great experience playing this format competitively,” said Moosa. “Now that we are in the quarterfinals we will try to go all the way and hopefully win the final tomorrow (Thursday),” he added.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s women have also entered the quarter-finals, where they will take on India today. India have also made the quarterfinals of the men’s tournament where they will take on Saudi Arabia.
Today’s schedule:
Women’s quarter-finals: Turkmenistan vs Nepal 4pm, Mongolia vs Sri Lanka 4pm, Hong Kong vs Lebanon 4pm and India vs Qatar 4.30pm
Men’s quarter-finals: Qatar Maroon vs Qatar Grey 4.30pm, Iran vs Chinese Taipei 4.30pm, Philippines vs Jordan 5pm and India vs Saudi Arabia 5pm.
Women’s semi-finals: 7pm
Women’s final: 8.30pm
Men’s semifinals: 7.30pm
Men’s final:9pm
BELOW: Qatar Basketball Association chief Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani (C) watches the action along with other officials.