Al Muna school tops in junior category of hockey event

DAMMAM — The First Federation Cup hockey tournament kicked off at Al Ettifaq sports stadium, here last week in which senior and junior hockey teams from 5 CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) schools in the Eastern Province are competing. The tournament is organized by the Saudi Indian Hockey Forum (SIHF) — an organization promoting the Indian national game hockey among students and youths of the subcontinent in the Kingdom as well as among the Saudi youth — a group of hockey lovers and pioneers of hockey in Saudi Arabia who were active players in early eighties. The first match was played between Al Muna International School and Sunshine International School. Intekhab Alam was the referee. Al Muna International emerged victorious by a margin of 1-0, with Sumamah Shabbir scoring the winning goal. Al Muna boys played an attacking game right from the start and missed couple of scoring chances, on the other hand Sunshine boys played quick and fast hockey but were unable to penetrate Al Muna’s solid defense. Sunshine also missed out on a couple of scoring chances. In the Second match between International Indian School Jubail and Al Muna International School, in which Babar Khan was the referee, International Indian School Jubail defeated Al Muna International 1-0. The solitary goal was scored by Soumya Parmar for International Indian School Jubail. Both teams played good hockey with attacks and counterattacks. Al Muna School got few chances for equalizing but were unable to convert those chances. The third match played between International Indian School Jubail and Sunshine International School Dammam and supervised by Babar Khan saw the former trounce Sunshine by a big margin of 6-0. IIS Jubail players displayed good combination and made some very good moves with accurate passing. Krish Sharma (Captain), Farhan and Subhan were the scorers from IIS Jubail. Krish scored 2 goals, Farhan scored 3 goals and Subhan dcored 1 goal. Sunshine tried hard to reduce margin but were unable to score from the chances they got. In the final match played between Al Muna and IIS Jubail, refereed by Athar Hussain, Al Muna defeated IIS Jubail by a margin of 2-0. Goals were scored by Sumamah Shabbir and Abdul Majeed. Al Muna boys gave a display of very good hockey, with their forwards Abdul Majeed, Sumamah, Zidan and Hamdan combining well and tearing into the defense on many occasions. Their vice captain Rayan was solid in defense while goalkeeper Hisham (captain) saved important goals. Though IIS Jubail played nice hockey they were unable to convert their chances. Captain Krish Sharma and Soumya Parmar combined well and on many occasions beat the defenders but missed failed to finish with finesse Shaheryar Mohammed Khan is the founder and chairman, while vice presidents include Mehmood Khan, Mansoor Siddiqui, Rafat Farooqi, Rasheed Khan, Iqbal Hussain, Ameen Khan and Baber Khan. Omer Quraishi, is the project manager, and event manager Faisal Khan and Ather Hussain, Ashfaq Hussain, Intekhab Alam. Shahid Azmi, Sheesh Mohammed Khan, Amir Iqbal and Iqbal Khan are technical directors who play important role. The tournament is supported by KIA motors, Harris Pye and Mass sports. Saudi Gazette is their media partner. Results of junior category: Al Muna International School — Winners; International Indian School Jubail — 1st runners up; Sunshine International School, Dammam — 2nd runners up. Matches for senior category will be played next week.