Qatar’s success at the World Youth Bowling Championships was just what the doctor ordered for the team as they head to the Asian Games in Indonesia in a few days, coach Pedro Merani has said.
Qatar won the boys’ overall title in Detroit last weekend with Ghanem Abu Jassoum, Jassim Mohamed al-Muraikhi, Mohamed Hamad al-Muraikhi and Jassim Ibrahim al-Theyab bagging two gold medals.
“We have achieved our target at the World Youth Championships. Now we look ahead to the Asian Games which will be equally tough,” Argentinian Merani told journalists.
“Our Asian Games preparations have been going on for more than a year now and the success at the World Youth Championships has come at the right time. It will definitely boost the morale of the boys,” he added.
He also said the team’s show in the US was a result of years of planning.
“The gold medals are results of lot of effort put in by these boys who took up the sport at the age of 12, seven years ago.
“They are now enjoying the success of their hard work in the form of gold medals.”  Qatar won one gold in the individual event, and the other in the team competition.
“We were expecting only one gold medal but we ended up with two, which we consider a bonus. All credit to the boys for their tremendous performance.”
Qatar had previously won a gold medal each at Youth Championships way back in 1988 and 1992.
Qatar defeated the Philippines 2-1 in the semi-finals to earn a place in the 2018 final against Finland, 2-0 winners against top-seeded Japan.
In the title match, Qatar made light work of Finland, claiming the title 239-238, 233-199.
Merani said the Qatar Bowling Federation had re-set its training template a decade ago.
“This programme started 10 years ago. The winning group of young players have been training for the last seven years. So this is the fruit of seven years of hard work.”
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