By Abdellatif Sharaa and KUNA
CAIRO: Kuwaiti swimmers secured two more medals, one silver and another bronze in the evening period of the competition, at the Cairo-hosted 3rd Arab Aquatics Championships which last till Wednesday.
The Kuwaiti team now have four medals, one gold, one silver, and two bronze in the first day of competition. Faisal Abu Al-Hassan, the head of the Kuwaiti delegation to the tournament and a member of the Board of Directors of the Kuwait Aquatics Federation, told KUNA that the team won a silver medal in the Relay-200M free style for the 13-14 years category, adding the swimmers were Hasan Zaid, Hmoud Al-Hmoud, Mohammad Ashkanani, and Abdullah Sultan.
Abu Al-Hassan said swimmer Khaled Al-Otaibi won the Bronze medal in the 800m free style competition, and highly praised all Kuwaiti swimmers. The Kuwaiti delegation participating in the Arab Championship comprises 27 swimmers (both boys and girls) competing in three age categories: 13-14 years, 15-16 years, and 17-18 years. The events are being held in morning and evening sessions at the Cairo International Stadium’s swimming pool complex. The diving competitions are set to begin on Wednesday, featuring Kuwaiti participants Jassim Al-Qallaf, Fadhel Abbas, Abbas Qali, Ali Fahad, and Abdulkarim Al-Sebaa across three men’s categories.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Aquatics Federation Sheikh Khalid Al-Bader Al-Sabah was pleased with Kuwait swimmer’s new record besides winning gold and bronze medals.
Al-Bader congratulated swimmer Mohammad Hamid Zubaid for winning the gold medal for the 50 meters butterfly of 15-16 years category achieving a new Arab record of 24.68 seconds breaking the old record of 26.04. Sheikh Khalid Al-Bader said each player who scores an Arab record will receive KD 1,000 in addition to KD 500 for a gold medal and KD 200 for the silver and bronze medals.
Al-Bader said results of the championship shows that Kuwait swimming is on the right path, and that Kuwait swimmers are able to make achievements in the name of Kuwait abroad, provided that they are well prepared, and this is what the Aquatics Federation seeks to do. He thanked players and their guardians for their sincere efforts, adding that the coming period will see more efforts to make more achievements to raise Kuwait flag at the sports arenas.