Raisa Al Falasi leads UAE into final round of Boccia

Dubai - The Fazza Bisfed Regional Open Championship - Dubai 2017 is a qualifier to achieve ranking points for the forthcoming World Championships and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics

Raisa Al Falasi led UAE's charge into the knockout rounds of the individual competition on the penultimate day of the Fazza Bisfed (Boccia International Sports Federation) Regional Open Championship - Dubai 2017 held under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Sports Council at the Dubai Club for the Disabled.
The participating countries are Australia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Singapore, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and hosts UAE who are fielding 14 players.
The Fazza Bisfed Regional Open Championship - Dubai 2017 is a qualifier to achieve ranking points for the forthcoming World Championships and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
Regional players from UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia took the spotlight on the final day of pool matches to underline their ascendancy in the Paralympic sport of Boccia.
Kuwait's Athari Almutairi caused a huge upset when she beat Thailand's Somboon Chaipanich 5-3 in the final BC3 pool match but missed out advancing to the quarterfinals.
UAE secured four spots in the final round of the Fazza Bisfed Regional Open Championship - Dubai 2017, including two in the BC2 category through Khalid Almarashda and Sultan Al Ketbi. Alaleeli Saleh advanced from BC1 while UAE captain Raisa Al Falasi kept alive her hopes in BC4.
Saudi Arabia, newcomers to the sport of Boccia, had the satisfaction of seeing Ahmed Al Sweidan qualifying to the last eight from pool A in the BC2 category after defeating UAE's Sultan Al Ketbi 4-1 and getting a walk over from team mate Zuhair Al Qarni. Saudi also came out trumps in another regional duel against UAE, when Ali Muggbel notched his maiden international win 6-1 against Huda Al Kaabi in the final BC3 pool D tie.
UAE's Alaleeli Saleh, ranked 44th in the world in BC1, was ranked second in pool A recording wins over compatriot Alali Mohammed 9-1 and Ahmed Doman of Saudi Arabia 19-0. He suffered only one defeat to BC1 world number two and favourite from Thailand Pattaya Tadtong who remained unbeaten with a 9-1 win over Kuwait's Fahad Albabtain.
Rio Paralympics gold medallist in the BC1-2 team event for Thailand Subin Tipmanee upset BC1 world number 8 Mei Yee Leung of Korea in a close contest 3-2 to secure her place in the last eight from pool B along with compatriot Witsanu Huadpradit who was unbeaten notching his third win over UAE's Salem Al Ketbi 12-2 blanking his rival in the final end.
Thailand's BC2 individual gold and silver medallists respectively in Rio, Watcharaphon Vongsa, the world's number three BC2 player, and Worawut Saengampa, the top ranked world BC2 player, were unbeaten in their pool matches.
UAE's Khalid Almarashda beat Pak Lun Chan of Hong Kong for his second win and qualify to the quarter-finals as the second ranked player from pool B. His compatriot Sultan Al Ketbi went through as the third player from pool A despite losing to Saudi Arabia's Ahmed Al Sweidan with his heroics the previous day against Zuhair Al Qarni giving him a good average score.