Sports | Monday 20 January, 2020 3:10 pm |

The third Labour Sports Tournament, organized by the Labour Standards Development Authority in Sharjah has entered the knockout stages. With the participation of 120 teams competing in football, basketball and volleyball in addition to hockey and cricket, the tournament is held on the playgrounds of Sharjah National Park.

The fifth week’s competitions, directly supervised by His Excellency Salem Youssef Al-Qaseer, Chairman of the Labour Standards Development Authority in Sharjah, witnessed holding the final round of the preliminary round of football competition, which resulted in qualifying 16 teams for the Quarter final of the tournament, which ranked first and second of the six groups, in addition to the best Four of the third place. These are: ADNOC A, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Fast A, Reach Target, National Paints, Identity and Citizenship, Sharjah Civil Defense, European Union for Contracting, in addition to the Department of Social Services, Sharjah Police, Fast B, Injazat, Prosmart, Al Hijl Insurance, and Hamriya Municipality and Lacnor Oasis.

After a break for training this week, the Round of 16 football competition will start on Friday, January 31, on the knockout base, and will witness a struggle among the teams to qualify for the quarter-finals. Eight games will be played in which Al-Hijl Insurance meets with Prosmart, and Sharjah Police with ADNOC- A ", while the Social Services Department team will meet with Lacnor Oasis and National Paints meets the Hamriyah Municipality.

The Identity and Citizenship team also faces the European Union for Contracting, Fast- A with Reach Target, Sharjah Civil Defense with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Injazat with Fast -B.

The draw for the round of 16 was held at the offices of a ceremony held at the Labour Standards Development Authority in Sharjah. The ceremony was supervised by Omar Al-Sharji, Director of the Support and Corporate Communications Department at the Authority, and Tariq Salem Al-Khanbashi, Founder and Director of Reach Target, for sports services, the company organizing the tournament. The draw ceremony was attended by representatives of the teams qualified for the role of 16 and officials of the Authority and the organizing company.

His Excellency Salem Youssef Al-Qaseer, Chairman of the Labour Standards Development Authority in Sharjah, expressed his satisfaction over the outstanding level of competitions, noting that some clubs put the championship under the spot in order to search for special talents in football, basketball and volleyball, in addition to hockey and cricket. This confirms the communication among sports communities, and demonstrates the presence of real talents among UAE residents, waiting to be discovered.

The Chairman of the Labour Standards Development Authority continued: "The significant improvement of the tournament in the third edition and the emergence of talents that may contribute to feed the country’s sports with distinguished players, makes the labour tournament an important addition to the general sports scene in the country.” He said the Authority welcomes those who are interested in exploring sports talents, and we will be happy to communicate with them and invite them to attend the sport tournament. 

As for the results of the fifth week in the rest of the games, they came as follows: In volleyball, Lacnor defeated Falcon Pack 2-0, and score (25-16, 25-12), while the Heat Shield team defeated MedPharma 2-1 (25-23, 16-25, 15-10).

In basketball, the ASTEG team defeated the UAA 76-73, the Comrades team defeated Armado 66-55, DP World defeated Bisdak 73-69, and the Abu Shagarah team defeated Sharjah Squad by 20-0 for the latter's withdrawal, The Bicol Oragon team also beat the AFEBL 62-60, and the Hamriyah team beat the Sharjah Cooperative team 64-5.

In the cricket, Al Bataya team beat Sri Lankan Pros by 8 runs, Fast team won over Dist and Village by 52 runs, and Sri Lankan Pros team beat Falcon Pak, as the latter failed to attend, and the Sharjah Airport team beat the OBS Automotive team with 4 runs, and the Sharjah TV team beat the United Arab Bank team 7 wickets, and Sharjah TV defeated the University of Sharjah with 8 wickets and Bangladesh Bros beat JRCC by 9 wickets.