Oman Basketball gear up for GCC, Arab Championships

MUSCAT, FEB 29

The 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 Oman Basketball Association from March 1 to 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 to 4, in cooperation with the Arab Basketball Federation, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, Al Mouj Muscat and Oman Sail.

The tournament will be attended by 8 Gulf youth teams namely: Oman A, Oman B, Qatar A, Qatar B, Saudi Arabia A, Saudi Arabia B, UAE, and Kuwait. The women's championship will be attended by 5 teams namely: Oman A, Oman B, Saudi, UAE, and Kuwait.

Arab Under-18 3x3 Championship will include 13 teams for girls and boys represented by Oman, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, and Iraq. The competitions will be held at Al Mouj Muscat.

Oman 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 Al Mouj under the leadership of coach Zuhair al Ayashi and in the presence of the players of the A and B teams. Team A is represented by Asad al Bahlawi, Abdulrahman al Maawali, Qaisar al Balushi, and Qusai 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 presence of Ghassan al Busaidy, team manager.

On the other hand, women national team conducted their final training sessions on the championship field under the leadership of coach Wafa al Zaghdoud, in the presence of national team A players, Zeina Batash, Noor al Khrousi, Sayyidah Sarah bint Taimur al Said, and Zainab Baomer. While team B players Juhaina al Jarjari, Aisha al Yafaei, Rana al Habsi, and Maysoun al Habsi.

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, 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".

Wafa Zaghdoud, coach of the women team said, "The preparations are in good situation, 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 honourable results in the two tournaments".