Late Abdullah Meshari Al-Rawdhan Ramadan Futsal tourney kicks off
A file photo from the previous Futsal tournament.
KUWAIT CITY, May 27: On the second day of the late Abdullah Meshari Al-Rawdhan Ramadan Futsal Tournament, matches for seniors’ category will be held between teams of Kazem Club and BMW, team of Teresh Group for Perfumes and RAR, and teams of Holiday Inn and Al-Zamel Rehabilitation Center.
In the amateurs’ category, the late Dhari Al-Othman team will meet Al-Yahyi team, Al-Tawoon team will meet Al-Tadhamon team, and Kuwait team will face Hassan Abul Center team.
Meanwhile, the tournament’s higher organizing committee has completed preparations for the visit of the four superstars for this year’s tournament - former Welsh and Manchester United legend, Ryan Giggs, former Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas, Barcelona’s Andrés Iniesta, and Egyptian superstar Mohamed Aboutrika.
The four superstars, along with several participating players of the tournament, will play in show matches to be held on the sidelines of the tournament.
This will allow fans to choose players who will appear in the series of the dream games, which the tournament is keen to annually host in order to give opportunity to the fans to witness famous players, and closely communicate with them, as well as provide a lifetime opportunity for local talents to play with famous footballers.
In the night’s other main race, the women’s 5000m, Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba failed in her bid to better the world record of 14:11.15 set by her sister Tirunesh in 2008.
Dibaba, the 1,500m world champion, was racing against the clock for the final five laps after leaving the pack behind but could only finish in 14:25.22, well outside the world record, and her own personal best of 14:15.41 set in 2015.
Lilian Rengeruk was a distant second in 14:36.80 while Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands was third. “I’m happy that I won but I’m not happy about the time,” Dibaba said through an interpreter. “The pace was real slow and I’m not happy with how we started.
“We lost time in the first 3,000metres and it was hard to come back after that.”
In the long jump, 2012 Olympic champion Brittney Reese of the United States posted a world-leading leap of 7.01 metres (23 feet) for victory.
Reese’s jump handed her victory over 2016 Olympic gold medallist and compatriot Tianna Bartoletta, who could only manage a best of 6.83m. Britain’s Lorraine Ugen was third with a jump of 6.78m. “The goal was to come out and jump seven metres, just to see where my training and everything was at,” said Reese, who will be aiming to dethrone Bartoletta at the World Championships in London in August.
“I feel like I’m headed in the right direction to where I want to be. It was really important to come out here and tell myself I could perform.”
The women’s javelin meanwhile saw a victory for Belarus’s Tatsiana Khaladovich, who topped a strong field which included 2016 Olympic gold medallist Sara Kolak of Croatia and Czech world record holder Barbora Spotakova.