Friday 26 / July / 2024
Muscat: Oman's national youth and women's basketball teams will begin competing in the GCC Under-18 3x3 Basketball Championship today, which is being hosted by the Oman Basketball Association from March 1-2, in cooperation with the GCC Basketball Coordinating Committee. The Arab Under-18 3x3 Basketball Championship for boys and girls will also be held from March 3-4, in cooperation with the Arab Basketball Federation, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, The Al Mouj Muscat, and Oman Sail.
The tournament will be attended by 8 Gulf youth teams: (Oman (A) and (B) teams, Qatar (A) and (B) teams, Saudi Arabia (A) and (B) teams, the UAE team, and the Kuwait team). The women's championship will be attended by 5 teams: (Oman (A) and (B) teams, the Saudi team, the UAE team, and the Kuwait team). Our teams participating in the tournament aspire to present an honorable level and achieve good results in these competitions. They have the same ambitions for the Arab Under-18 3x3 Basketball Championship for girls and boys, which will be hosted by the Federation from March 3-4, with the participation of 13 teams for girls and boys: (Oman, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, and Iraq). The competitions will be held at The Al Mouj Muscat.
Yesterday, our national teams conducted their training sessions with high morale and great ambitions to present a high level that confirms the development of the 3x3 basketball game in Oman for the youth and women's teams. The youth team trained on the championship field at The Al Mouj under the leadership of coach Zuhair bin Sharif al Ayashi and in the presence of the players of the (A) and (B) teams. The (A) team is represented by the players (Azad al Bahlawi, Abdulrahman al Maawali, Qaisar al Balushi, and Qusay al Amri), while the national team (B) is represented by Mohammed al Raisi, Mishaal Qafqaf, Azzan al Ajmi, and Al Walid al Maawali. The training sessions were held in the presence of Ghassan al Busaidi, the team manager.
On the other hand, with high morale and great ambitions, the national women's team conducted its final training sessions on the championship field under the leadership of coach Wafa Sasi Al-Zaghdoud, and in the presence of the national team players, which included the (A) team with its elements: (Zeina Luay Batash, Noor Ahmed Al-Khrousi, Sayyida Sarah Timur Al Said, and Zainab Abdullah Baamer) and the players of the (B) team: Juhaina Muhammad Al-Jarjari, Aisha Hussam Al-Yafaei, Rana Salem Al-Habsi, and Maysoun Amer Al-Habsi).
The training sessions focused on good shooting and smart passing to reach the basket in the 3x3 basketball game, in which the teams compete on one basket with a team of 3 main players.
Abdulrahman Al-Maamari, a player for the Oman basketball team, spoke in an interview about his ambitions in the 3x3 basketball championship, where he expressed his desire to present a distinctive performance and achieve good results to raise the name of Oman in the championship. He also added that this is his first appearance in an international championship, and he indicated that the preparations for the championship were intensive thanks to the efforts of coaches Zuhair and Ghassan, who increased the pace of training to achieve the best.
Zuhair Al-Ayashi, the coach of the national youth team, confirmed the team's readiness to participate in the competitions. Al-Ayashi said: "We started preparing for the championship two months ago through intermittent and continuous camps, taking into account the study of the players and the periods of seasonal and weekly holidays. The training sessions witnessed a lot of enthusiasm and a sincere desire from the players to benefit from the training times, and the players are making great efforts to develop their levels."
He added: 3x3 basketball matches depend on the small details, and whoever is more focused and invests in opportunities will be able to win. The players of the team are capable of achieving good results in the two tournaments.
For her part, coach Wafa Zaghdoud, coach of the women's team, said: The preparations are good, and there is great discipline in the training sessions, as the girls were keen to participate effectively in all training sessions. The players are determined to do their best to achieve honorable results in the two tournaments.
