Emirati Salah Al Rimawi so close yet so far from gold medal

Salah Al Rimawi had to be content with the silver medal as he fell short in the final of the GCC Billiards Championship 9-ball final at the E-Zone Club in Dubai today.

The Emirati was two pots away from taking gold before we went down 11-10 to Bashar Hussain of Qatar.

It had looked good for Al Rimawi as he led 3-0 and 5-1 in the early stages of the best-of-21 clash.

But an undaunted Hussain rallied and won seven frames on the trot to go 8-5 ahead.

It was Al Rimawi's turn to retaliate as he won five of the next six to move within a frame of victory.

The match went to a decisive frame, but Al Rimawi's left the No 8 ball in the jaws of the pocket to allow Hussain to claim the gold.

Al Rimawi will try to bounce back in the 9-ball team competitions with his UAE teammates, which continues tomorrow after starting tonight.

Meanwhile, in a battle of the UAE's top two snooker players, Mohamed Shehab and Mohammed Al Joaker, the former emerged a 4-1 winner in the round-robin last-16 stage of the National Day Snooker Championship and became the first man to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Also today, Ahmed Shehab defeated Marwan Ibrahim 4-0 and Mohammed Hussain registered a 4-1 victory over Abdulrahman Saif.

The last 16 round-robin stages continue until tomorrow night, with the final taking place on Monday.

sports@thenational.ae

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