Action from the opening night of the Welcome to Aspire Ramadan Football Tournament. Teams were eager to display sportsmanship and teamwork on the opening day of the competition.
DOHA: Teams competing in the Welcome to Aspire Ramadan Football Tournament were especially eager to display a spirit of sportsmanship and teamwork on the opening day of the competition.
With the aim of building unity among employees, one of the teams in the Aspire Football Tournament was even offered an additional incentive to spur them to come on top.
Employees from the Tadmur/ROOTS company came together this Ramadan for their first football tournament and their Human Resource manager was keen to motivate them.
With over 5,000 company employees, Raoof Fadel, captain of the team and Human Resource Manager at Tadmur/ROOTS, faced the challenge of identifying sports enthusiasts. Despite the difficulty, he managed to enlist some of the best sports players to join the team and prepare for the tough competition.
Fadel explained, “We only had a couple of friendly matches to prepare. We really see the Aspire Zone tournament as a great team building activity. Our company is all about doors always being open and sharing, and this tournament is a great way of showing that our company is one family, sharing the spirit of sport together.”
Faced with a loss of 2-1 to Flamengo on opening night, Fadel and his teammates did not let this defeat dampen their spirits or enthusiasm.
In other opening day matches, defending champions Al Andalus once again displayed their strength and unity as a team with a 6-0 win over Mreakh.
The runners-up from last year, Al Wadi also started the competition on good footing by registering an 8-1 victory over step into health.
Smeesma also performed well in the championship, defeating Venus International 7-0.
The tournaments will continue at the Warm Up Track and Outdoor Pitch 10 at Aspire Zone from 9.15pm every day with the final match slated for July 24.
In the basketball tournament, a free throw by Tristan Cristobal with seven seconds remaining snatched victory for Oryx against Uno as the opening night of the Welcome to Aspire Ramadan Basketball Tournament got underway.
Uno mounted an amazing fight back to tie the game with ten seconds remaining, but a foul on Cristobal gave him a chance to win the match from the foul line. After the match Cristobal said, “The other team was very tough and I knew that there was still time after my shots and that they could win the game.” Fortunately for Cristobal, his teammates were able to gather the ball after he missed the second free throw and held onto it to finish the match with a 26-25 victory.
One of the first to congratulate Cristobal for making the winning shot was teammate Alex Zoleta who had given Cristobal a Minnesota Timberwolves replica shirt of Spanish guard Ricky Rubio to wear during the match.
“He doesn’t play like Ricky Rubio,” said Zoleta. “He plays more like Mark Caguioa, a famous player in the Philippines.”
In other matches, HMC defeated Doomie 25-19 and Sustainable Energy beat Roots Bulls 49-8.
The Peninsula
