His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal, Minister of Sports and President of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation, expressed his thanks and appreciation to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Highness the Crown Prince, HRH Prince Muhammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz – God bless them – for the unlimited support and attention that He places on the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation to advance its activities towards the desired goal.
This happened during the speech of His Highness at the closing ceremony of the Islamic Solidarity Games, which took place yesterday at the university stadium in the Turkish city of Konya, in the presence of the head of the Saudi delegation participating in the session, Prince Fahd bin Jalawi bin Abdulaziz bin Musaed, Minister of Youth and Sports Republic of Turkey, Dr. Muhammad Muharram Kasaboglu and a number of leaders of the national Olympic committees.
His Highness praised the government and people of the Republic of Turkey, led by His Excellency President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, His Excellency Minister of Sports Dr. Mohammed Muharram, and the city of Konya for hosting this exceptional version of the Islamic Games. Prince Abdulaziz Al-Faisal congratulated all Islamic medal winners, expressing his pride in the organizers of the course, including administrators and volunteers.
At the competitions on the last day of the tournament, green karateka Tarik Hamdi won a gold medal in the weight category over 84 kg, defeating his Azerbaijani colleague Ismayilov Gurban with a score of 10:4. Prince Fahd bin Jalawi bin Abdulaziz bin Musaed, head of the Saudi mission to the tournament, crowned the Hamdi player with gold as the player started his career by defeating Moroccan Ahmed Khader at the weigh-in to defeat Qatari Khaled Hassanein in the quarter-finals. 3-0, and then beat Turkish Sen Fateh 2-0 in the semi-finals. Al-Akhdar player Faraj Al-Nashiri finished fourth in the 83 kg competition, losing to Moroccan Nabil Al-Shaabi, who beat Malaysian Mohamed Chardi 7-1, then Uzbekistan’s Ali Sultan 1-0, then lost to Azerbaijan’s Abdullah Bana 1 – 0, then He beat Pakistani Ali Imran 2-0.
In the team kata competition, the Saudi Arabian team, consisting of Faraj Al-Nashiri, Muhammad Al-Rajeh and Fadel Al-Ghomgam, took fourth place with 23.5 points. Thus, the Kingdom ended its participation in the tournament with 24 medals (two gold, 12 silver and ten bronze), placing fifteenth out of 54 participating countries.
The weightlifting team won the largest share of medals, winning 11 medals (1 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze), in second place in athletics with 5 medals (4 silver and one bronze), then in karate with three medals (one gold and two bronze). ), then table tennis with two medals (silver and bronze), then Paralympic swimming with one bronze medal, in addition to a silver medal in team games for the under-23 football team.
The technical level of the Saudi teams that participated in the tournament varied according to many technical factors, the most important of which are the age groups, the first external representation and the opportunity for a new sports generation, which we hope to be the champion of Riyadh Asia 2034.
