TABLE TENNIS – BAHRAIN’S star paddlers both advanced yesterday to the round of 32 of the men’s doubles in table tennis at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
The pair of Mohammed Alaali and Sayed Mahfoodh and the duo of Rashed Sanad and Mohamed Saleh were both victorious in their respective preliminary round matches at Sky Hall Toyota.
In attendance during yesterday’s action were Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) board member and Bahrain Table Tennis Association president Shaikha Hayat bint Abdulaziz Al Khalifa, along with BOC secretary general office’s director Shoof Almalood, BOC Arab and international relations head Maryam Mardana, and other officials from the kingdom’s delegation.
Alaali and Mahfoodh claimed an impressive 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-9) win against Taha Bilal and Abdal Khan from Pakistan yesterday. They will next take on the Singaporean pair Zhe Yu Chew and Josh Chua, who had a bye in the opening phase.
Rashed and Saleh, meanwhile, defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Abai Kasymov and Atai Kasymov 3-0 (11-2, 11-5, 11-4) in their outing yesterday.
They set up a clash with Hsien-chia Hsu and Jing-kai Hung from Chinese Taipei, who also had a bye from the preliminaries.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh