NAS Sports: Surprise stuns MRMR-1 in volleyball

Team Surprise secured a stunning 3-2 win (19-25, 25-20, 25-17, 22-25, 15-12) against hot favourites MRMR-1 to clinch the remaining semi-final slot in the volleyball competition at the 4th Nad Al Sheba (NAS) Ramadan Sports Tournament being held at the NAS Sports Complex.

Down by a set, Surprise fought well with their Cuban attacker Leonardo Leyva Martinez and Algerian Toufiq Mahdjoubi playing a crucial role in leading the fightback.

“Our task is now just half-done,” said UAE footballer Khamis Ismail, who acts as non-playing captain for the Surprise team.

“Next will be to win the semi-finals and then place ourselves with a chance to win the title for the first time,” he added.

Earlier, Zabeel had consigned Al Zaeem to their third defeat in as many Group B matches with a 3-0 result.

In the semi-finals, Surprise will take on Fohood Zabeel, while Zabeel will face MRMR-2 in the second semi-final. The final is scheduled to be held on Wednesday June 15.

Meanwhile, Shabbir Ahmed will meet Saeed Al Muhairi of the UAE in the gold medal match in the Recurve archery competition for the disabled.

Having won the bronze medallist after defeating the UAE’s Habib Abdul Majid 6-4 last year, Shabbir Ahmed powered his way through the preliminaries with emphatic 6-0 scores on two occasions.

He first blanked Abdul Majid 6-0, before securing a similar win against Yemen’s Khalid Ahmed to set up a final meeting against Saeed Al Muhairi.

Jasim Ramzan, also from Pakistan, will contest the bronze medal match against Reza Jalal Bahri of Iran.

Meanwhile, the semi-final lineups in the teams’ padel and volleyball competitions were also finalised on Monday night.

In the padel, M5 secured the fourth and last spot remaining with a clinical 2-0 win against the Abdullah Al Maktoum team.

The M5 team will now meet the SHM team, while in the upper half of the draw Uncle Saeed will take on Valencia in the two semi-finals scheduled to be played on Monday June 20.

The final and third place play-off will be held on June 26.

In the Men’s Open, defending champions Sandy Farquharson and Javier Lopez was the only unbeaten couple from Group A.

They have one last match against German Zunica and Javier Molina to be played at 8 pm on June 18.

Group B too had an unbeaten couple in Emilio Misas and Pedro Rios maintaining their winning run with a 6-0, 6-0 blanking of Juan Reyna and Jon Garabieta.

The two semi-finals will be played on June 22 and the final will be held on June 25.

Results

(Padel)

Men’s Open: Sandy Farquharson/Javier Lopez bt Mohammed Ahli/Abdullah Ahli 6-0, 6-0; Emilio Misas/Pedro Rios bt Juan Reyna/Jon Garabieta 6-0, 6-0

Teams competition: M5 bt Abdullah Al Maktoum 2-0

(Archery – Disabled Recurve Open)

Shabbir Ahmed bt Habib Abdul Majid 6-0; Khalid Ahmed bt Mohammed Al Zarouni 6-2; Ibrahim Al Hammadi bt Nabil Abdul Kareem 6-0; Jasim Ramzan bt Ali Al Sa’adi 6-4; Saeed Al Muhairi bt Ibrahim Hashmi 6-0; Younus Adam bt Mohammed Megahed 6-2; Mohammed Vahdani bt Hussain Ibrahim 6-4; Reza Jalal Bahri bt Ansaf Suhail 6-0; Shabbir Ahmed bt Khalid Ahmed 6-0; Jasim Ramzan bt Ibrahim Al Hammadi 7-1; Saeed Al Muhairi bt Younus Adam 6-4; Reza Jalal Bahri bt Mohammed Vahdani 7-1; (Semi-finals) Saeed Al Muhairi bt Reza Jalal Bahri 6-5;Shabbir Ahmed bt Jasim Ramzan 6-2.

(Volleyball)

Zabeel bt Al Zaeem 3-0 (25-14, 25-21, 28-26); Surprise bt MRMR-1 3-2 (19-25, 25-20, 25-17, 22-25, 15-12)

Semi-finals: Fohood Zabeel versus Surprise; Zabeel versus MRMR-2