In their debut at Ashgabat 2017, Qatar easily defeated Samoa 21-11 in the 3x3 basketball competition yesterday.
Qatar’s Abdulrahman Saad played a very concise game and set the pace for the 2014 3x3 FIBA World Cup winners.
“When you win, everything is fine. It happened and we feel good,” Saad said after the win.
“Since we didn’t play together in the last months our priority is to find our chemistry and play at our level. We will need one or two games to reach our level,” he said, referring to his teammates Nedim Muslic, Tanguy Ngombo and Erfan Saeed.
“There is a general impression that we are the favourites, but it will not be proven unless it will happen,” Saad said.
In other games, Iraq registered two easy and impressive victories – over Tajikistan and Lebanon – and scored an impressive 21 points each time.
Before losing to Iraq, Lebanon had shocked Turkmenistan 17-11. An hour later the Turkmen regrouped and got back on track to thrash weak Tajikistan by a confidence-boosting 22-4.
The competition continues today with six games for men and three for women.
In the men’s 6-Red Snooker singles, Qatar’s Ali al-Obaidli began the day with a thrilling and close 5-4 win over Korea’s Lee Daegyu, but lost to Pakistan’s Mohamed Sajjad in the quarter-finals.
Three other Qatar cueists — Ahmed Saif, Bashar Hussain and Waleed Majed — lost their Round of 16 contests
Qatar 3x3 basketball team (in white) of Abdulrahman Saad, Nedim Muslic, Tanguy Ngombo and Erfan Saeed beat Samoa 21-11 in their first match yesterday. (Twitter)
