Players pose with officials before a W-League Qatar game at the Qatar Sports Club.
By Sports Reporter/Doha
After a successful year-ending inaugural in 2013, the W-League Qatar is back into the country’s basketball mainstream as Season 2 opened with day-long basketball hostilities following a festive opening ceremony at the Qatar Sports Club.
Dubbed ‘Double Pump for a Cause’, the two-tiered new season features the Opex category with 8 participating teams composed of expatriates from different countries, and the Filex Championships with 16 contending teams of exclusively ‘6-feet-and-under’ Filipino basketeers.
SFQ Sports Academy beat Askar Industries, 58-50, in the curtain-raiser, Batang Sanna crushed Boom General Contractors, 74-58, Jaidah Group nipped All Stars, 62-53, and Q-Auto Falcons edged NBHH, to round up the four matches in the first day of the Opex Championships.
Meanwhile, in the initial game of the Filex Championships, Team Batangas murdered a hapless Hauz of Events, 83-62.
Turbo Oilers edged Clark-Craize Maize, 67-66, on a buzzer-beating trey, and Lucky 7 defeated QNFS, 51-42 to join Batangas, REMS-Chopsuey, Centennial and Aktor in the winners’ circle of the All-Filipino category.
The organisers of the W-League led by Chairmen Nur Emir Manguinao, Laudymer Palisoc, Ardee De Leon and Liza Reyes, and UFEQ President Annie Esmer, gave out special awards after the opening rites.
Arianne Jane Samson of Hauz of Events and Joahanna Mangunay of Rems-Chopsuey ran away with the Best Muse plum while Team Batangas and Hauz of Events were adjudged as teams in Best Uniform.
Pat Carido, Chairman of the Pinoy Basketball in Qatar (PIBAQ), graced the occasion as the guest speaker.
Intended to assist distressed OFWs in Qatar, Double Pump is organised by the United Filipino Entrepreneurs in Qatar (UFEQ) and sponsored by Craize Maize & Scene Stealer, Audi, Volkswagen, Fitness First, City Exchange, Asian United Bank, Doha Trendsetters, Social Magnet, as well as Capturing Emotions, Chaiful Ideas, Balitang Q and TFC.