KINGDOM ROUNDUP

Saudis rule Arab U-23 meet
The Saudi athletics team bagged top honors with eight gold, a silver and bronze medals respectively at the 15th Arab Under-23 Athletics Meet, which concluded in Amman, Jordan, on Saturday.
Iraq came second and Qatar took third place.
Khaled Bin Nouh, head of the Saudi delegation, said the number of medals obtained shows that the training method used by the Saudi Athletics Federation is on the right track.
“What is more important than these results is that a number of athletes qualified for the next World Athletics Championships, which will be held in Spain,” he said.

Shabab Indoor Football champ
Al-Shabab Club won the first Saudi Indoor Football Championship after beating Al-Rayed Club in the final at Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University’s field in Riyadh on Tuesday evening.
The tournament was held in Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh. Over 650 players representing 62 teams – 21 clubs, 31 companies, and 7 military sectors and 3 government sectors saw action.
Marine Forces took third when it got the better of Land Forces squad 5-4.
Chairman of the Saudi Football Federation’s Football Games committee Ahmad Al-Khamees handed over the Cup in the presence of Professional League Committee’s Chairman Muhammad Al-Nuwaiser and Al-Shabab Club President Khaled Al-Baltan.

Arab Cup preparations
Saudi and Arab football federations’ preparations are continuing to launch the Arab Cup 2012 that will take place in Taif and Jeddah from June 22 to July 6.
Head of the organizing committee, Muhammad Al-Sarrah, met this week with different heads of the committees in the organization of this tourney. He was briefed on the opening ceremony to be held simultaneously at King Fahd Sports City in Taif and Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah.
He was briefed on the plan of each committee head, discussed the opening ceremony, reviewed reports on King Fahd Sport City in Taif and Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah, and hotels selected for the delegations and referees.
There will be awards for best Arab media coverage — for television, radio, newspapers and news websites — and the tournament’s information committee will announce the details a week before the competition begins.

Saudi-Yemen football friendly
Saudi Under-22 national football team will play Yemen tomorrow in a friendly match in preparation for Asia Cup qualifiers, which will begin on June 23 in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s group includes Syria, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka and Palestine. The top two teams qualify for the final.
After the Yemen match the team, under coach Khaled Al-Qrouni , will visit Germany for 12 days and play friendly matches with European teams. It will include four Saudi players in Europe including Abdullah Hafiz and Saleh Al-Shehri, who play in Portugal, Abdullah Al-Shuwayer and Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim, who plays in Romania and Bosnia.
— Compiled by Naif Al-Turki