BAHRAIN SPORT 28

28
Gulf Daily News Monday, 10th November 2014
BAHRAIN SPORT
n Bahrain's Ambassador to Egypt and permanent representative to the Arab League Shaikh
Rashid bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa received the Bahrain tennis delegation headed by His Majesty the King's Advisor for Youth and Sport Affairs Saleh bin Isa bin Hindi. Shaikh Rashid praised
the solid ties between Bahrain and Egypt, stressing the strong relations bonding the two countries in tennis. Above, the Bahrain delegation included Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC) president
Khamis Mohammed Al Moqla and other officials.
Email: sport@gdn.com.bh
n Asian Football Confederation president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa received
vice-president of DPR Korea Football Association and AFC Executive Committee member Han
Un Gyong at his office. He asserted the confederation’s plan to continue implementing a variety
of programmes aimed to develop football in Asia. During the meeting, both parties discussed
a number of issues related to football in the continent and also reviewed the prospects of joint
cooperation between the two organisations. Above, Shaikh Salman with Han.
Four days to go!
l Preparations for
Six Hours of Bahrain
reach fever pitch
BA H R A I N
International
Circuit (BIC) was buzzing
with activity yesterday as
preparations reached fever
pitch ahead of this weekend’s FIA WEC Six Hours
of Bahrain.
“The Home of Motorsport in
the Middle East” hosts the seventh and penultimate round of
the 2014 FIA World Endurance
Championship (WEC) on Friday and Saturday in Sakhir.
The participating teams and
drivers have already begun arriving in the kingdom and started setting up at the track with
only four days remaining ahead
of the weekend’s highly anticipated events.
Among the high-profile
drivers who were first to touch
down on the island was Brazilian Fernando Rees, who will
be sharing duties in the Aston
Martin No 99 car competing
in the Le Mans Grand Touring
Endurance Pro (LMGTE Pro)
category.
Many other team officials
and WEC personnel have also
already arrived in Bahrain.
A total of 27 cars have been
confirmed for the Six Hours of
Bahrain, which promises to be
a tremendously exciting dayto-night race.
Leading the field will be the
Le Mans Prototype 1-Hybrid
(LMP1-H) teams, including
Toyota Racing, Audi Sport
Team Joest and Porsche Team.
Each squad will be fielding two of their eye-catching
Hybrid racing cars, which are
among the most technologically advanced in the world.
The
LMP1-Lightweight
(LMP1-L) squads of Lotus
and Rebellion Racing (two
cars) are also in the field,
while in the LMP2 class will
be G-Drive Racing, Oak Racing, KCMG and SMP Racing
(two cars).
In the LMGTE Pro category,
AF Corse, Porsche Team Manthey and Aston Martin Racing
will be fielding two challengers
apiece; while in the LMGTE
Amateur (LMGTE Am), Prospeed Competition, Proton
Competition, and 8 Star Motorsports will be joined by the two
cars each from AF Corse and
Aston Martin Racing.
According to WEC information, five 747 aircrafts carrying all the teams’ equipment
were scheduled to be shipped
to Bahrain for the Le Mans-inspired race.
These contain the race cars,
garage and pit equipment,
spares and consumables, and
Bahrain teams gear up
for GCC tennis clash
THE Bahrain under-12 and
under-16
teams continue
their preparations to compete
in the upcoming GCC Tennis
Championship to be held at Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTC) courts in Isa Town
from November 17 to 21.
BTC technical director and national
team coach Essam Abdula’al said friendly matches are being held as part of a
training camp. The national under-12
team consists of Jaber Bader, Mohammed Al Khan, Ali Al Sharif, Fahad Jaber
and Mohammed Aqeel while Ali Dewani, Hamad Essam, Elyas Abdulredha,
Ahmed Rasool and Hussain Dewani are
in the under-16 squad.
n Teams’ equipment are now in place
anything else needed by teams
while in the kingdom.
Work behind the scenes has
already been frantic, with only
a two-week break in between
the sixth round of the season in
Shanghai and the Six Hours of
Bahrain.
A huge amount of time is
usually spent by team personnel arranging visas, shipping
documents, carnets, passes, order forms for team services and
much more for processing en
route to the various locations of
the championship.
The work will keep on going
even after the cars get their first
taste of action on the track on
Thursday. The WEC will be
holding a pair of hour-and-ahalf practice sessions then.
On Friday, which will be the
first full day open to the public
at BIC, an hour-long practice
and qualifying will be held.
Qualifying will determine the
grid for the Six Hours of Bahrain on Saturday, which will be
a fascinating endurance challenge starting at 3pm and concluding at 9pm.
Meanwhile,
the talented duo
of Raed Raffii
and Mohammed Mattar will
be representing
Bahrain.
They
will
be driving for
Team Bahrain,
entered in the
Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge
Middle East.
Their entries were confirmed
yesterday by championship officials.
The Porsche GT3 Cup is
one of two highly competitive
support series taking place
during the Six Hours of Bahrain weekend. The other is the
India-based 2014 MRF Challenge, which is a single-seater
championship. The cars and
drivers in both series have already begun their preparations
at BIC.
n The 19th meeting of the GCC Women’s
Sports Organising Committee will be held
today on the sidelines of the Fourth GCC
Women’s Volleyball Championship which also
starts today. It will be chaired by Shaika Naima
Al Ahmed Al Subah of Kuwait. The report of the
18th meeting held in Kuwait will be reviewed
and of the schedule of the First GCC Women’s
Junior Handball Championship to be held in
2015 finalised. The timetables of the Third GCC
Junior Championship to be held in the UAE in
2015 and the Fourth Women’s GCC Games to
be held in Oman from March 8 to 18, 2015 will
also be discussed. Bahrain Olympic Committee
(BOC) member and Women’s Sport Committee
chairwoman Shaikha Hayat bint Abdulaziz Al
Khalifa said she was delighted with Bahrain
being the hosts for this important meeting.
Shaikha Hayat and other senior sports officials
welcomed Sayyida Sana bint Hamad Al Busaidi
who arrived in Bahrain yesterday. Shaikha Naima is expected to arrive today. Left, Shaikha
Hayat welcomes Sana’a Al Busaidi on arrival.
The Porsche GT3 Cup is
holding the first round of its
2014/2015 season in Bahrain,
while the MRF Challenge is
staging its season’s second
round in the kingdom.
Tickets to the weekend are
being sold at the BIC sales
outlet at Bahrain City Centre
located on the ground level
near gate number three. They
can also be bought online from
BIC’s official website, www.
bahraingp.com, or by calling
the BIC Hotline on +973-17450000.
Tickets cost BD20 each for
adults and BD10 for children
aged 12 and below Toddlers
aged up to three years old will
be able to attend with their families for free.
For more information on the
Six Hours of Bahrain or other
activities at the circuit, visit
bahraingp.com or call +97317-450000.
BAHRAIN ROADRUNNERS RESULTS
1 Mohammed Mohammedi (M40)
15:40:1; 2 Maaly Tawir (M30)
16:04:5; 3 Mohammed Al Matar
(M30) 17:18:7; 4 Hasan Mohamed
Ali (M16) 17:26:0; 5 Mubarak
Alsulati (M16) 17:48:9; 6 Ebrahim
Althaher (M30) 17:56:5; 7 Manoj
Kannoth (M16) 18:18:5; 8 Nic
Vondrak (M30) 18:42:3; 9 O Reilly
Andrew (M30) 18:44:5; 10 Abdulla
Attiya (M16) 18:49:0; 11 Rayan
Alajaji (M16) 19:01:4; 12 Conor
Sheedy (M30) 19:05:7; 13 Phil
Solarski (M30) 19:17:1; 14 Yousif
Zaman (M30) 19:19:8; 15 Amer
(M30) 19:23:3; 16 Juan Roche
(M30) 19:28:7; 17 Brandon Caine
(M45) 19:54:7; 18 Colin Gardiner
(M45) 20:02:6; 19 Nicolas Ciavarella (M50) 20:14:2; 20 Slim Abed
(M40) 20:20:5.